The Foreign Service Journal, December 2003

T he J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust is a char- itable fund established in the memory of Kirby Simon, a Foreign Service Officer who died in 1995 while serving in Taiwan. The Trust is committed to expanding the opportunities for professional fulfillment and community service of active Foreign Service Officers and Specialists and their families. The principal activity of the Trust is to support projects that are initiated and carried out, not in an official capacity and not on official time, by Foreign Service personnel or members of their families, wherever located. The Trust, however, will also consider proposals from other U.S. Government employees or members of their families, regardless of nationality, who are located at American diplomatic posts abroad. In 2003 the Trust made its seventh round of grants, 27 in all, ranging from $600 to $5000, for a total of $60,020. These grants support the involvement of Foreign Service personnel in the following projects (further described in a Trust announcement entitled Grants Awarded in 2003 and available at w ww.kirbysimontrust.org: • Educational Projects: Library and materials for a nongovernmental school in India; teacher training and books for pre- and after-school programs in Guatemala; computer and books for children’s libraries in rural India; public education about AIDS in Romania; furniture for pre-school classrooms in Ghana; electrical outlets and light fixtures for a school for Nicaraguan street children; dental hygiene for a local school in Honduras. • Other Projects for Children: Playground equipment for slum children in India and the following projects at orphanages: dental unit (Ukraine), security wall (Columbia), toilet (Zambia), mattresses, auto maintenance and recreational area (Brazil), books and educational materials (El Salvador), field trip (Lithuania), engineering vocational training (Rwanda), physical therapy equipment and services (Bulgaria), pre-school classrooms (Bolivia). • Facilities for the Homeless: Sports equipment for an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan; house-building for hurricane victims in Honduras; rehabilitation of two refugee centers in Greece; clothing for abandoned children in Columbia. • Facilities for the Ill and Disabled: Renovation of a small ward at a children’s hospital in Ghana. • Skills Training Projects: Roofing, storage and supplies for a women’s papermaking cooperative in Burkina Faso; computer equipment and furniture for a computer skills training center in Armenia; cosmetology training for pregnant girls in Panama. • Projects for Foreign Service Children: Soccer program serving Foreign Service (and other "international") youths and Mongolian street children; an initiative to ease the transition for Foreign Service children subject to emergency evacuations from countries in crisis conditions. The Trust now invites the submission of proposals for support in 2004. It is anticipated that most of the new grants will fall within the same funding range as the 2003 awards, and that projects assisted by the Trust will reflect a variety of interests and approaches, some of which are illustrated by the 2003 grants. Grants provided by the Trust can be used to defray a wide range of project expenses, such as acquisition of equipment, books and supplies, travel and data collection costs, and dissemination of materials. Grant funds from the Trust, however, cannot be used to pay salaries or other compensation to U.S. Government employees or their family members. Because of the limited resources available to the Trust, it is not in a position to support projects that have reasonable prospects of obtaining all the funds they need from other sources, or that propose to conduct activities closely similar to those undertaken by other public or private programs, or that cannot be carried out effectively with Trust-size grants. The Trustees wish to emphasize that the Trust will provide support for a project operated by a charitable or educational organization only where the Foreign Service-related applicant(s) play an active part in initiating and carrying out the project, apart from fundraising. A proposal should include a description of the project, what it is intended to achieve, and the role to be played by the applicant(s); a preliminary plan for disseminating the results of the project; a budget; other available funding, if any; and a brief biography of the applicant(s). Proposals should be no longer than five double-spaced pages (exclusive of budget and biographical material). Proposals for projects to be funded during calendar year 2004 must be received by the Trust no later than March 1, 2004. Proposals can be submitted by mail, fax or e-mail to: J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust 82 Edgehill Road New Haven, CT 06511 FAX: 203-432-0063 in fo@kirbysimontrust.org Inquiries may be directed to one of the above or by phone to 203-432-2698. Further information about the Trust can be found on the Web at w ww.kirbysimontrust.org. J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST AN INVITATION TO PROPOSE PROJECTS FOR FUNDING BY THE J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST IN 2004