12 years ago, an unknown American's idea to do business differently

http://www.p-ced.com/History/tabid/57/Default.aspx

Today, a Marshall Plan

http://www.p-ced.com/Projects/Ukraine/AMarshallPlanforUkraine/tabid/69/Default.aspx

Tomorrow, a foreign policy based on smart power.

http://www.csis.org/smartpower/

It seems one of my efforts has attracted some diplomatic interest, as I learned last week when a collaboration to raise signatures for a petition to recognise the famine-genocide period of Ukraine hit their government news site.

Today I learned that their embassy is sending over a cultural attache. Not to me fortunately to my collaborator who's Ukrainian.

Now he might even notice the Net2 button. Well if it was still there he might,  now it's just a line of text, something about collaborating.

Pleased to see today that a small collaboration effort started two weeks ago, entered the news section of a government website today. We had a simple DotNetNuke framework up within a day, linked with other campaigning groups and gathered public domain material to create:  

http://www.holodomor.org.uk/ 

With the following response a few hours ago: 

http://www.kmu.gov.ua/control/en/publish/news_article?art_id=71671146&ca...

More relevant to our efforts was something that took nearly a year, raising awareness of childcare conditions for the disabled, a week ago we saw it bear fruit.   

There are many sources for research into the plight of social orphans, ie those in institutional care due to economic circumstance. Today I found a summary of some of the more heavy reading: 

ORPHAN STATISTICS

The statistics will amaze you:
1. There are over 100,000 orphans in Ukraine.
2. The older an orphan gets, the chances for his/her adoption drastically decrease.
3. Each year many orphans between 15 to 18-years-old leave the orphanages.
4. Most of these orphans have no one to turn to for help.
5. About 10% of them will commit suicide after leaving the orphanage before their eighteenth birthday.
6. 60% of the girls will end up in prostitution
7. 70% of the boys will enter a life of crime
8. Only 27% of these youth will find work
These youth live in a country that labels them as “useless” and gives no assistance to turn their lives around. It is a society that has created its own problem by placing thousands of children in orphanages, and then when they come of age, they give them no assistance to lead a successful life. It is almost as if the system places them in trade schools to become “slaves of the State” to fill the low-income jobs of unskilled labor and remain the under-trodden, 2nd-class citizens that the majority of the population of Ukraine believe that they are.

Only by joining here, have I realised what tagging is all about and I'm sold. What a great way to get out a message.

My interests include the rose revolutions particularly in Ukraine, institutional childcare, modern day slavery, poverty reduction and social business.

So if anyone else  here is interested in these topics, I'd be glad to be part of your network

my username on del.icio.us is Jeff.Mowatt 

With Ukraine's President Yuschenko appealing today for radical improvement in child protection policies. 

http://en.for-ua.com/news/2007/03/13/165639.html

His priorities for 2007 include:

• passing and enforcing a law on the fulfillment of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child;
• promoting and encouraging adoption;
• introducing financial aid mechanisms to support children;
• eradicating homelessness among children;
• reforming the system of orphanages and children’s homes.