The Foreign Service Journal, December 2009

he J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust is a charitable fund established in the memory of J. 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-duty Foreign Service officers and specialists and their fam- ilies. The principal activity of the Trust is to support projects that are initiated and carried out, on an entirely unofficial, voluntary basis, by Foreign Service personnel or members of their families, wherever located. The Trust will also consider projects of the same nature proposed by other U.S. government employees or members of their families, regardless of nationality, who are lo- cated at American diplomatic posts abroad. Only the foregoing persons are eligible applicants. In 2009, the Trust made its thirteenth round of grant awards, 44 in all, ranging from $550 to $4,500 (averaging $2,480), for a total of $109,142. These grants support the involvement of Foreign Service personnel in the projects described in the Trust announcement entitled Grants Awarded in 2009 and available at www.kirbysimontrust.org. To indicate the range of Trust grants, the following paragraphs set forth a sampling of projects supported by the Trust in recent years: Education Projects: school supplies for refugee and other conflict-afflicted children and for orphanages; English-language learning materials for high school students; day-care facilities for underprivileged women learning marketable skills; specialized education equipment for the disabled. Additional Projects for Young People: playground and sports training equipment, educational toys, furnishings, household appliances, toilet and shower facilities for special-needs schools and orphanages; cleanups to improve sanitation and create play spaces; school fees and food for abandoned children; and materials for a re-entry program for returning Foreign Service teens. Health and Safety-related Projects: dental care for impoverished children; staff training for crisis shelters; health care equip- ment and improved sanitation for maternity clinics and orphanages; a visual impairment survey among HIV-positive children; new homes for earthquake victims; photo documentation of murdered women set on fire by husbands or in-laws. Revenue-producing Projects: machines and materials for income-generating programs for sick and disadvantaged children and adults, including abused women, migrant workers, refugees, Roma and victims of sex-trafficking; a cooperative for deaf car- penters. The Trust now invites the submission of proposals for support in 2010. It is anticipated that few of the new grants will ex- ceed the average size of the 2009 awards, and that projects assisted by the Trust will reflect a variety of interests and approaches, illustrated by the foregoing list of past grants and by the Web site description of 2009 grants. Grants provided by the Trust can be used to support several categories of project expense; examples are provided above. However, certain restrictions apply: (a) Funds from the Trust cannot be used to pay salaries or other compensation to U.S. gov- ernment employees or their family members. (b) The Trust does not support projects that have reasonable prospects of full fund- ing from other sources. (c) The Trust will provide support for a project operated by a charitable or educational organization only where the individual applicant(s) plan an active part in initiating and carrying out the project, apart from fundraising. (d) The Trust will support only projects in which each applicant’s role is clearly separate from the applicant's official responsibilities. A proposal should include a description of the project, what it is intended to achieve, and the role to be played by the appli- cant(s); a preliminary plan for disseminating the results of the project; a budget; other available funding, if any; and a brief bi- ography of the applicant(s). Proposals should be no longer than five double-spaced pages (exclusive of budget and biographical material). Please follow the application format available at www.kirbysimontrust.org/format_for_proposals.html or by com- municating with the Trust (see below). Proposals for projects to be funded during calendar year 2010 must be received by the Trust no later than March 1, 2010. Proposals can be submitted by mail, by fax or (preferably) by e-mail to: J. Kirby Simon Foreign Service Trust 93 Edgehill Road New Haven, CT 06511 FAX: (203) 432-0063 info@kirbysimontrust.org Further information about the Trust can be found on the Web at www.kirbysimontrust.org . J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST AN INVITATION TO PROPOSE PROJECTS FOR FUNDING BY THE J. KIRBY SIMON FOREIGN SERVICE TRUST IN 2010 T