Creating Local Change through Global Exchange™

* As of January 2010

This 1999-2010 timeline highlights the individuals and events that have made MCW the organization that it is today.

1999: Co-founders Meet and Create Miracle Corners of the World (MCW)

Eddie Bergman, 19, of Long Island, New York and Rob Alsbrooks, 28, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania meet and discover that even though their own experiences are different, they share a common purpose: to make a difference in the lives of young people around the world.

They turn to mentors for guidance in this common pursuit, drawing inspiration from Dr. Edward B. Shils, founding Director of the Entrepreneurial Center at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School, and Dr. Herman Wrice, a Philadelphia-based community activist and organizer who created Turnaround America, an anti-drug campaign, in the early 1990’s.

Paul Bergman, Eddie’s brother and Wharton student, and Dr. Peter White, Eddie’s Northport high school social studies teacher and founder of Students for 60,000 (a student club that pursues humanitarian projects in vulnerable communities around the world), help co-founders crystallize ideas and develop concrete plans of action. [Dr. White retired in 2008 and currently serves as an advisor to Students for 60,000. He is also an MCW advisor.]

In the summer, Rob joins Eddie on a trip to the Ivory Coast, where they help build a three-room schoolhouse and launch a women’s agricultural initiative. [Eddie began this project in high school with Students for 60,000.] Inspired by their experience in the country, they decide to continue to empower youth to be “agents of change.”

With input from Dr. Wrice, Dr. Shils, Dr. White, and Paul among others, Miracle Corners of the World (MCW) is created. The name of the non-profit is inspired by the work of Dr. Wrice, who had encouraged the transformation of a drug haven street corner into a safe, drug-free social corner in the West Philadelphia community of Mantua. Dr. Wrice had initially mobilized Rob and a team to help clean up an abandoned lot on 34th Street, which became a space for small business development. The transformation was called a “Miracle on 34th Street” by the Philadelphia Inquirer in October 1999.

 2000: MCW Lays Foundations in Tanzania and the U.S.

To advance their shared mission, Eddie writes to dozens of people across Africa, asking if they want to collaborate on a joint venture. Dr. White encourages Eddie to write to the Maryknoll Sisters in Tanzania, and Sister Sue, an American nun living and working in Arusha, responds positively.

Co-founders travel to Arusha, where they meet youth living in the densely populated Majengo Juu and learn about the lack of entrepreneurial opportunities for youth in the area. MCW purchases land to construct a youth center for the community, while working with the youth to help establish small businesses. With challenges along the way, the co-founders were persistent and built strong relationships with the local community and government officials.

During construction, Eddie visits Tanzania’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York and meets with Ambassador Daudi Mwakawago. Ambassador Mwakawago encourages MCW to expand its work in the East African country and offers his support. He also encourages a meeting with the Regional Commissioner Arusha, who then introduces MCW to [former] District Commissioner Bertha Mende. DC Mende expresses a strong interest in MCW and its youth empowerment model.

MCW launches a website, thanks to the initiative of MCW Project Coordinator Brian Brady. MCW Coordinator Heather Moore takes the lead with other MCW marketing materials, helping shape MCW’s evolving brand and image.

2001: MCW Opens Doors for New Programs and Leaders

As a first-year student at New York University (NYU), Eddie explores ways to partner with NYU on service projects. He first reaches out to Lavern McDonald, [former] Assistant Director of NYU’s African American, Latino, and Asian Services. He then meets Gloria Cahill, [former] Director of NYU's Office of Community Service.

Through Gloria, Eddie meets Anna Condoulis, Executive Director at NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS). Anna helps MCW organize a youth leadership training retreat event at NYU with support from Lavern and Gloria. She also helps MCW develop new strategic partnerships with different NYU departments. This marks the beginning of MCW’s long-term relationship with NYU and Anna Condoulis, who joins MCW’s Board of Directors. Shortly afterward, Anna travels to Tanzania with Professor George Sideris for the first of what would become many MCW volunteer trips.

In the summer, MCW co-sponsors a peer education and crisis-intervention training program in New York for forty students from the South African township of Soweto. Thanks to an introduction made by Dr. Shils between Eddie and Dr. Margo Marshak, [former] Vice President of NYU Student Affairs, MCW organizes part of the program at NYU. MCW also partners with NYC’s Department of Youth and Community Development (Youthline) on the program. This connection is made by Charmaine Peart, who joins MCW’s Board of Advisors.

MCW presents its first Lifetime Achievement Award to the late Dr. Herman Wrice posthumously at the 2001 Open Doors Ceremony, in which the young program participants share their experiences with the MCW community of friends and supporters. Mrs. Jean Wrice accepts the award on behalf of her late husband.

In Arusha, MCW opens the Dr. Herman Wrice Youth Empowerment Community Center, named in honor of a founding mentor shortly after his passing. The center includes an information technology (IT) program, named in honor of mentor Dr. Edward Shils and set up by University of Pennsylvania students. The center also offers English classes, entrepreneurship training, performing arts activities, and preschool education. At the opening ceremony, the Wrice family presents the community with a liberty bell from John Street, the 97th Mayor of Philadelphia.

With the opening of the Arusha center, MCW lays down the foundations for the emergence of a sustainable center model that will be shared in other locations in the years to come.

Responding to the needs of the Arusha community, MCW organizes a dental outreach project in which NYU students and faculty visit the MCW youth center for two weeks and provide free dental services to more than 200 patients. The program is initiated by Ruben Cohen, Eddie’s residential advisor (RA) at NYU, who was looking for a way to get involved with MCW. Ruben introduces MCW to NYU School of Dentistry professor and future Board of Directors member, Dr. Anthony Vernillo, who participates in the outreach project. Henry Schein Cares, the corporate responsibility program of Henry Schein, Inc., the world’s leading dental and medical supplies provider, contributes dental supplies and equipment in-kind to the project.

During the year, MCW tutors students attending the Grace United Methodist Church's Youth Academy in Harlem, New York.

2002: MCW Pilots the Youth Leadership Retreat

MCW organizes its first Youth Leadership Retreat during Martin Luther King Jr. weekend (from January 18-20) at NYU, bringing together high school and college students from across the U.S. together to explore the topics of cultural competency, and co-existence.

The second Leadership Retreat is held in April at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia as a one day seminar, with 25 participants; the third is held from July 17-August 2nd at NYU, with fifty-five students.

MCW presents its second Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Shils at the Open Doors Ceremony held at NYU.

These first three retreats involve youth from a wide range of socio-economic, geographic and cultural backgrounds, from China, Israel, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, the U.S., the West Bank, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The week-long program centers on interactive group activities, as well as presentations from a variety of social entrepreneurs, many of whom are active in the MCW community. After the first retreat, past participants begin to return to future retreats as mentors to help guide new youth leadership participants.

Under Board of Director Paul Bergman’s leadership, MCW co-sponsors a youth workshop in Mahalapye, Botswana with a youth group called Tshwarangano (“unity” in Setswana) Against AIDS in Botswana (TAAB). TAAB is a student-led organization that empowers youth to become "agents of change" by confronting the challenges of HIV/AIDS with interactive education and leadership training. In addition to the workshop, the two organizations develop a common goal and supportive structure for TAAB to continue to build on the workshop’s energy. MCW and TAAB join hands in August 2003 to establish TAAB's second national chapter in Maun, Botswana.

2003: MCW Extends Reach Around the World

In February, MCW organizes its fourth Youth Leadership Retreat at Washington State University’s Swiss Center in Brig, Switzerland. Over fifty youth from twenty countries participate. Dr. Nancy Scanlon, a lecturer in NYU’s hospitality program and a former professor of Eddie’s, helps MCW coordinate the event. [Nancy had left NYU to take an adjunct position in Switzerland for a few semesters.] Nancy joins MCW’s Board of Advisors.

District Commissioner Mende transfers from Arusha to the rural district of Songea in the southwest quadrant of Tanzania, near the Mozambique border, where she invites MCW to expand its programs and helps secure land for a future youth center. DC Mende later introduces MCW to her successor, Abeid Mwinyimsa.

MCW extends the Tshwaragano Initiative to Songea and helps create Youth Empowerment for Tanzania United (YETU). Like TAAB, YETU empowers Songea's youth to become agents of change in their communities, specifically in the battle against HIV/AIDS. 

MCW and YETU share the initiative with youth from China, who establish the third international partnership for the Tshwaragano Initiative: Health and AIDS Initiative for Knowledge and Education on Youth Involvement (HAI KEYI), with support from Shanghai's Jiaotong University. HAI KEYI [meaning “okay/can do” in Chinese] focuses on increasing sexual health awareness and decreasing social stigma against those infected with HIV/AIDS.

In July, MCW holds its fifth Youth Leadership Retreat at NYU and at Lyndon State College in Vermont. Dr. Cathy DeLeo, a professor of recreation and ski management at the school, helps organize the retreat. She joins MCW’s Board of Advsiors after meeting Eddie at a conference in Jordan.

Jacqueline Murekatete, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, participates in the week-long event, sharing her personal story with the youth delegates.

Thanks to an introduction by MCW Board Advisor Monica Willard, an NGO Representative to the United Nations for the United Religions Initiative, Roberta Richin attends the Youth Leadership Retreat for the first time. Roberta, an educational consultant and author, introduces a new educational tool to the retreat program: the vision plan, which enables each delegate to envision his/her dream and to map out a concrete course of action. After the retreat, Roberta joins MCW’s Board of Directors Open Doors is held at the South African Counsel in New York.

In August, MCW organizes its second dental outreach program in Songea in partnership with NYU. MCW works out of a clinic in a local hospital. Over 500 patients receive treatment in the community that has a dentist to patient ratio of 2 to 1.2 million. Henry Schein Cares continues to provide dental supplies and equipment in-kind.

In December, MCW holds its sixth Youth Leadership Retreat with twenty-five Israeli and Palestinian participants at the Ramat Rachel Hotel in Jerusalem. Harvard conflict resolution expert Dr. John Woodall facilitates the event and becomes an MCW Advisor.

2004: MCW Moves to Sierra Leone

Tanzania Ambassador Mwakawago is appointed Special Representative of the Secretary General to the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Sierra Leone. Based on MCW’s success in Tanzania, he suggests that MCW brings its grassroots approach to the West African country to help create opportunities for youth in the post-civil war reconstruction process. To assess the country’s readiness for an MCW youth center, Eddie travels to Sierra Leone several times during the year.

In July, MCW brings fifty youth from the Middle East, Africa and the Americas together for its seventh Youth Leadership Retreat at NYU. Open Doors is held at NYU’s Kimmel Center. MCW presents its third Lifetime Achievement Award to Mira Berman, Executive Director emeritus of the Africa Travel Association (ATA).

In August, the third dental outreach group, with dentists and dental students from the U.S. and South Africa, treat nearly 650 patients in Songea. Henry Schein Cares again provides dental supplies equipment in-kind to the project.

Alfred Hanssen, an engineer and friend of Paul Bergman’s from the University of Pennsylvania, travels to Sonega, Tanzania for a few weeks to advise on the construction of the new center. When he returns to his job in Philadelphia, he realizes that his work as an engineer does not provide him with the same growth opportunities, so he quits and moves to Songea to volunteer with MCW. Over the next six months, he manages construction and builds a team of young leaders to manage the new 53 acre center.

2005: MCW Holds First Gala, Opens Second Center in Tanzania and Lays Cornerstone in Sierra Leone

MCW holds its first Gala Dinner in the spring at NYU’s Kimmel Center, raising more than $100,000 for MCW programs. Former New York Mayor David Dinkins delivers the evening’s keynote address. MCW’s fourth Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded to Dr. David F. Finney, [former] NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) dean.

In July, MCW organizes its eighth Youth Leadership Retreat at NYU with more than fifty delegates and mentors. A highlight includes a visit to MTV's "Total Request Live" (TRL) to learn about the role the media plays in shaping cultural attitudes. Kym Stewart, a new MCW advisor, helps organize the visit. Open Doors is held at the Simon Wiesenthal Tolerance Center in New York, where MCW presents its third Lifetime Achievement Award to Bunny Grossinger, an MCW advisor.

In August, MCW establishes a new youth center and health/dental clinic in Kipera village, a forty-minute walk from downtown Songea. The center, which sits on 53 acres of land donated by the government, offers English classes, IT training, a preschool, a library, and dentalcare treatment to the community. The center includes a community hall, and housing units, which are used as classrooms and homes for team leaders, who run the center’s programs.

Felix Nyakatele, an artist and teacher who was active in the MCW center Arusha, leaves Arusha to move to Songea to help set up the new center’s programs. He also becomes an MCW project coordinator. [MCW first met Felix when he was a painter, who helped design the Arusha center’s murals.]

The same month, MCW sends a fourth dental outreach group from the U.S. to Songea to provide services to the community for a week. The team works out of the Liana Cohen Health/Dental Clinic, which is named after Ruben’s late sister. Henry Schein Cares once again provides support to the project.

MCW hosts a four-day training workshop for youth on HIV/AIDS education, entrepreneurship and art production at the Arusha center. The workshop is organized in partnership with the US-based group TechnoServe, an organization that provides business solutions to rural poverty in the developing world, and YETU.

 

Under the umbrella of the MCW Partner Initiative program, the Arusha center hosts a group of students from NYU and Long Island University in a week-long community service project on healthcare and the environment. The trip, organized by Professor George Sideris in partnership with Anna Condoulis, marks the beginning of exchange programs between US colleges and universities and the youth group at the center.

In response to a request from Dr. Augustine Mahiga, Ambassador to the Tanzanian Permanent Mission to the U.N., MCW donates 20,000 books to a new library at St. Augustine University in the city of Iringa, Tanzania. Books were donated by McGraw Hill Companies, New Jersey Islamic Interfaith Dialogue Center, the American Jewish Committee, and Lyndon State College (LSC). Khalid Elachi, a former MCW youth leadership retreat delegate, organizes the shipment of donated goods.

In December, under the leadership of Dr. Cathy DeLeo, LSC faculty, alumni and friends participate in Project Kili, an MCW Partner Initiative. The collaborative project provides the students and members of the MCW center in Arusha with the opportunity to learn, serve and summit Mount Kilimanjaro together. The program was developed with EDUCO Africa, a South African non profit that had recruited South African youth to participate in MCW’s earlier youth leadership retreats.

 

Also in December, MCW organizes a foundation laying ceremony for the new youth center in Sierra Leone. The center comprises a multi-purpose hall, a computer room with internet facilitates, a dining room and office space. It will provide skill training opportunities for over 700 unemployed youth in the east end of Freetown. Sierra Leone police donate land for the center and UNDP contributes funds for furniture and equipment.

 

Sharon Roling joins the MCW team in New York with the task of helping “grow” the infrastructure of the organization.

 

2006: MCW Continues to Make a Difference

In February, MCW holds its second Annual Gala Dinner at NYU, where it presents the first MCW Media Advocacy Award to CNN. Special recognition is given to Christiane Amanopur, CNN Chief International Correspondent; Jeff Kepnes, Senior Producer; and Mark Nelson, Senior Executive Producer for their documentary, Can We Save Them?. Michelle Makori, Bloomberg TV News Anchor, and Liz Claman, CNBC Anchor, also participate. MCW raises approximately $250,000 for its program at the 2006 gala.

In May, business leaders, investors, representatives of non-profit groups, media and friends of Tanzania gather at the NASDAQ MarketSite in Times Square for a luncheon in honor of the newly elected Tanzanian President, H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. MCW introduces President Kikwete to the finance and business communities, providing him with an opportunity to share his vision for the country under his leadership.

In June, under Project Coordinator Khalid Elachi’s leadership, MCW ships a second ocean freight container of donations, including books, dental and medical supplies, shoes, computers, sporting equipment, toys and clothing, from Sayreville, New Jersey to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.

In July, MCW holds its ninth Youth Leadership Retreat at NYU and Champlain College, thanks to support from Dr. David Finney, who moved to Burlington to serve as Champlain’s new president. This year’s retreat includes forty delegates and ten mentors. Open Doors is held again at NYU.

In Arusha, under the leadership of Prof. George Sideris, another group of Long Island University students visits the center to participate in a week of educational activities on the environment and challenges facing young people with the Perfect Youth Group (PYG), an independent youth organization that is borne out of the center.

In August, the fifth dental outreach group delivers treatment to over 400 patients in Songea.

MCW wraps up the summer by moving into a shared office space in midtown Manhattan in July.

2007: MCW Launches New Partner Initiatives

Dr. Marion Bergman is appointed MCW Healthcare Projects Director and facilitates an MOU with the local government officials in Songea to provide a full-time technician at the MCW clinic.

In January, Tanzanian President Kikwete asks MCW to help equip the region’s only dental school in the city of Dar es Salaam. Dr. Bergman begins to consider ways to make this happen.

In March, MCW organizes its third gala at NYU’s Kimmel Center, honoring tennis legend Billie Jean King, World Team Tennis CEO and Commissioner Ilana Kloss, Cal Ramsey of the New York Knicks, Baltimore Ravens linebacker and Super Bowl MVP Ray Lewis, and the NFL for using sports as a tool to empower youth worldwide. Special recognition is also given to Microsoft’s Community Affairs Program for supporting MCW’s IT project in Tanzania. Michelle Makori, Bloomberg TV News Anchor, emcees the celebration, and Liz Claman, Fox-News correspondent, and Ali Velshi, CNN Senior Business Correspondent, also participate. MCW raises almost $400,000 from its growing community of friends and supporters for its programs.

In April, MCW establishes a new partner program called MCW's Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, as a permanent initiative of the organization. Jacqueline Murekatete launches the program with MCW’s First Annual Commemorative Event on Rwandan Genocide at NYU. The new genocide prevention program aims to raise awareness of the crime of genocide in a wide-range of educational forums; and to help survivors rebuild their lives and their country by establishing an MCW center in Rwanda.

In the summer, MCW provides a one-time start-up grant to Broad Street Beatz, an independent after-school program devoted to teaching children in North Philadelphia digital music production and leadership skills.  

In July, MCW holds its tenth Youth Leadership Retreat at NYU in New York and Champlain College in Vermont with fifty youth delegates and mentors from around the world. For the first time, retreat participants visit the prestigious Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in New York for a private tour and presentation on art, culture and entrepreneurship. Open Doors Ceremony is held at NYU.

After three months of construction—led by Amanda Blount with support from Nicholas Orso and Harry Gbetuwa, MCW establishes the Mwakawago Youth Empowerment Community Center in the community of Kissy in East Freetown, Sierra Leone in August.

The sixth dental outreach group treats hundreds of patients in Songea out of the MCW dental clinic. The program expands to include preventive oral hygiene education in the community.

MCW facilitates the shipment of two forty-foot containers filled with supplies to help upgrade women's health and obstetrical services at Iringa Hospital in Tanzania. The container is co-sponsored by MedShare International and private donor Linda Schejola, thanks to the coordination and initiative of Dr. Bergman.

In September, MCW once again organizes a special event for Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete. This time, business leaders and non profit representatives convene for a roundtable discussion on investment in Tanzania in New York City. Fox News correspondent Liz Claman facilities the discussion.

In October, Jacqueline Murekatete is awarded a two-year MCW Fellowship. As a fellow, Jacqueline will lead MCW's Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner.

A month later, MCW is granted permission by the Rwandan government to work in Rwanda. On the basis of this success, MCW anticipates opening the fourth MCW community center for survivors of the 1994 genocide and other Rwandans living in the Bugesera district.

In December, a container of donations is unloaded in Iringa, Tanzania. The donations are allocated to MCW projects in Arusha, Songea and Iringa.

 

Alfred Hanssen joins the MCW team in New York as the new Associate Executive Director [later renamed to Chief Operating Officer].

2008: MCW Welcomes New Opportunities for Growth

In February, a container filled with donations arrives in Sierra Leone to support projects at the new community center in Kissy, East Freetown.

MCW holds its fourth Annual Gala Dinner at NYU’s Kimmel Center, paying tribute to the People of Sierra Leone with Honorable Vice President Sam Sumana accepting the award on their behalf. MCW also honors Donald and Shelly Rubin, founders of the Rubin Museum of Art, with the MCW Leadership Award. The late Professor Dr. George Sideris receives the MCW Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously. Liz Claman, Fox-News correspondent and Ali Velshi, CNN Senior Business Correspondent, also participate. MCW raises more than $475,000 to support its projects worldwide.

MCW organizes an educational forum in New York for the diplomatic, academic and non-profit communities, as well as for media covering African diaspora affairs, on socio-economic and political developments in Sierra Leone.

MCW and MCW's Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, organize two public forums—one at NYU and another at the Jewish Heritage Museum—on genocide prevention. More than 300 people attend the awareness raising events.

In May, MCW holds its first Community Development Leadership Seminar in Tanzania in partnership with EDUCO Africa, an organization specializing in leadership training. MCW’s entire Community Development Program Team, including leadership teams and local advisory boards in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, and Rwanda, participate in a variety of dynamic team-building and communication-focused activities.

The same month, MCW awards Amanda Blount, MCW Project Coordinator in Sierra Leone, a fellowship. Amanda moves to Sierra Leone to oversee the development of the center’s educational and entrepreneurial programs.

MCW holds its eleventh Youth Leadership Retreat at both NYU and Champlain College in Vermont from July 12-July 18 with over 55 youth from around the world. The retreat concludes with MCW’s annual Open Doors ceremony at NYU.

MCW Project Director Khalid Elachi becomes an MCW Fellow. [Khalid first became involved with MCW when he participated in the 2003 Youth Leadership Retreat. He then began volunteering actively with the organization in 2004-5 on a number of different projects, including organizing youth leadership retreats, traveling to Tanzania with the dental team and managing the MCW Partner Initiative program, the Container Project. As part of his fellowship, Khalid focuses on the MUHAS dental project and the new MCW Alumni Ventures Fund.]

 

MCW signs an MOU with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) in September to improve oral healthcare across Tanzania. As part of the agreement, and based on a needs assessment, MUHAS School of Dentistry receives four 40-foot containers packed with new state-of-the-art equipment. Content of these containers, along with the professional and technical expertise of the U.S. team, is valued at nearly two million dollars, one of the largest donations to the country to date from MCW donors. Major supporters include Dental Components International (DCI), Henry Schein Inc., and Midmark Corporation, as well as Attiteh Medico and Everlast Logistics.

 

Thanks to Victor Gruber, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and new MCW board advisor—MCW holds its first fundraising event on the west coast (in Cosa Mesa, California) of the USA in November. The event is dedicated to raising awareness and support for MCW's Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner, particularly the building of a new community center for survivors outside the Rwandan capital city of Kigali.

 

Eugenie Mukeshimana, a Rwanda genocide survivor and educational consultant, also joins MCW’s Board of Advisors.

 

2009: MCW Moves Beyond its First Decade

Ranika Cohen joins MCW Board of Directors.

In January, a team of companies, educational institutions, and individuals come together in Dar es Salaam to begin the capital upgrade of the dental school at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In March, under the leadership of MCW friend and supporter Kabinga Pande Jr., MCW files paperwork to register as a local organization in Zambia.  A stretch of land about thirty miles south of the capital Lusaka has been pledged to the organization. Center programs will focus on HIV/AIDS education and prevention.

MCW’s fifth Annual Gala Dinner is held in April at NYU’s Kimmel Center, where MCW honors the People of Rwanda, Ali Velshi, Anne Eiting Klamar, John Spencer, Jacqueline Murekatete, and MCW Field Interns. Michelle Makori, Bloomberg TV News Anchor, emcees the celebration and Liz Claman, Fox-News correspondent, and Charles Payne, Fox News contributor also participates. The gala succeeds in raising more than half a million dollars to support MCW programs worldwide.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, MCW launches the MCW Alumni Ventures Fund (AVF) at the gala dinner, thanks to the combined efforts of the AVF founders and chairs Steve Kess and Sharon Kess. The AVF provides financial support and mentorship to graduates of MCW’s Youth Leadership Retreat, who wish to turn their entrepreneurial visions into reality.

On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, MCW and MCW's Jacqueline’s Human Rights Corner organize two educational events—one at the UN Church Center and another at NYU. More than 200 people attend the programs and Jacqueline and the program receive significant attention from the press in a variety of media outlets.

In early June, Victor Gruber hosts the second MCW fundraising dinner in Cosa Mesa, California.

 

MCW intern Nathaniel Crossley graduates New York University and moves to Lusaka, Zambia, where he will help MCW establish a new community center.

 

In July, 35 youth delegates and 23 mentors attend the twelfth Youth Leadership Retreat program at Champlain College in Vermont and at NYU in New York. The retreat concludes with MCW’s Ninth Annual Open Doors Ceremony at NYU’s Law School. Tanzanian Ambassador Augustine Mahiga delivers the keynote address stressing the importance of thinking and acting locally with a view to the larger global context.

 

At the conclusion of Open Doors, Sharon Kess, who co-chairs the AVF and serves as a new MCW advisor, announces the first recipients of the MCW Alumni Venture Fund: Amma Agaypon and Shawn Crosby. They each receive a year of mentoring and a grant in order to advance their vision plans. In addition, MCW youth retreat participants pledge to start a global network of alumni dedicated to providing each other with support in pursuit of their community initiatives.

In July, Jacqueline Murekatete continues her fellowship with MCW as she begins her first year of studies at Cardozo School of Law.  

 

In November, H.E. Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete inaugurates the newly renovated dental school at the Muhilimbi University and hosts a special dinner at the State House for MCW and its friends, supporters, and leaders in the country.

2010

In early April, MCW opened the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City's Time Square on the morning of its sixth Annual Gala Dinner.

In early April, MCW held its sixth Annual Gala Dinner at NYU's Kimmel Center. At the 2010 gala, current NYU president John Sexton presented the MCW Lifetime Achievement award to Dr. John Brademas, NYU president emeritus, former politician, and longtime MCW supporter. Dikembe Motumbo, Chair and President of the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation and retired player for the Houston Rockets, received MCW’s Leadership Award. Tanzanian Ambassador to the US Ombeni Sefue also received MCW's Leadership Award. Tanzanian President Kikwete delivered a special keynote address. Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson also participated in the event. CNN Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi was the emcee for the event.

Also in April, representing MCW, Jacqueline Murekatete addressed the United Nations General Assembly on Genocide Prevention Day. To commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide, Jacqueline also participated in a special commemoration planned by Eugenie Mukeshimana, an MCW advisor.

In mid June, Mimi and Trond Saltzman held a garden party with approximately 30 guests for MCW's Jacqueline's Human Rights Corner and MCW.

In late June, Victor Gruber held a third dinner fundraiser for MCW's Jacqueline's Corner, raising critical funds for the MCW community center in Rwanda. The event was attended by over 30 guests and members of the MCW team, including Nate Crossley, Jacqueline Murekatete, and Yvonne Noel.

In early July, two young dental school technicians, William Mihayo and Haruna Matwili, from the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences Dental School (MUHAS) completed three weeks of technical training in three US cities. The training was sponsored by leading US dental manufacturing and supply companies, Dental Components International (DCI), Midmark, Sirona and Henry Schein, Inc., and facilitated by MCW.

From July 15-22, 2010, MCW held its 13th Youth Leadership Retreat at Champlain College with more than forty youth from around the world. Open Doors was held at New York University to close the week-long retreat.  The AVF award recipient was announced that evening.

In July, MCW Fellow Jacqueline Murekatete won a Do Something! Award, leading to a $10,000 donation to MCW to support the new community center in Rwanda. Jacqueline was selected as 1 of 5 winners from more than 600 applicants worldwide. Later in the month, on July 19th, Jacqueline was honored for her work at the 2010 Do Something Award Show on VH1.

On July 20, 2010, MCW was granted Special Consultative Status at the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Looking Forward to the Next Decade

Through our relationships, the MCW story continues to unfold. Empowered by our history, inspired by our present and compelled by the future, we look forward to learning from one another and continuing to write our history and our future together.

 

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