From The Director . . .

On March 15 over thirty students, staff and faculty attended the 25^th anniversary celebration of Coleman Advocates at City Hall in San Francisco. Marian Wright Edelman was the guest speaker, and after her compelling speech, we had the pleasure of meeting this articulate and very charming advocate for children.  She was particularly pleased to meet our students.  Needless to say, we were all impressed and energized to continue the work of the Institute here at SFSU.

Another exciting citywide event, attended by Institute staff, faculty and University administrators was the Head Start Open House held on February 28. City officials included the Mayor, Catherine Dodd from Nancy Pelosi’s office and federal representatives from Region 9 for Head Start.  All were there to pay tribute to the extraordinary accomplishments of Head Start under the leadership of Dr. Jean van Keulen, Director, Greta Yee and the entire Head Start staff. If you missed this event you can contact the Head Start Offices and schedule a visit to one of the 26 sites throughout the City.

Janet Egiziano, Director of Operations, and I have been busy visiting each of the programs housed within the Institute. I am both energized and humbled by the experience.  Faculty working on and off campus are engaged in service and education that have significant impact on children locally and globally. Our first goal was to identify potential links between or among programs that share a common purpose or mission.  Linking programs through additional funding efforts can enhance the impact to a population served and can extend the duration of successful efforts. We have identified several possibilities and are now collaborating with outside agencies and two internal programs to provide enhanced educational benefits for our students and expand services to children in the community.

~ Dr. Charlotte Ferretti

Bringing Cyber Connections to War-Torn Regions

  In 1997 while serving as a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Zabreb, Croatia, Dr. Gary Selnow, faculty member at SFSU, had an idea to install a few computers near Vukovar, Croatia to connect people to the Internet.  Selnow had witnessed the devastation war inflicted on the region and its people ¾ specifically on its children who, growing up in a post-war environment, endured poverty, alienation and woefully inadequate educational resources.

The children's fascination with computer technology gave Selnow the idea that the Internet would be a valuable tool in helping alleviate the community's isolation, enhance educational opportunities, teach children about cooperation, and diffuse ethnic tensions.  With a small grant from USAID, Selnow connected computers donated by UNICEF in a school in Vukovar and taught teachers how to run the equipment.

Upon returning to the United States Dr. Selnow organized resources under the auspices of the SFSU Global Learning Center and affiliated with the Marian Wright Edelman Institute.  The Global Learning Center's mission was to build a better and more peaceful life for people in war-torn and economically disadvantaged regions of the world through humanitarian programs using advanced technology.

With few resources at hand, Dr. Selnow personally underwrote the cost of the hardware and training.  From that beginning in Vukovar, the Global Learning Center spawned a new 501(c)3 non-profit organization known as WiRED and expanded its presence to include Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Albania.  In April 2001, Selnow will travel to Kenya, Africa to train orphans afflicted with HIV and soon thereafter will train schoolchildren in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Today, WiRED provides services through a network of programs. It contributes hardware, training, advanced consultation and program evaluation for the establishment of Internet Access Centers.  These centers, usually based in local schools, have become valuable community resources.

Because of war damage to communications facilities and equipment, critically ill children from developing nations undergoing treatment in Western hospitals have no reliable way to stay in touch with their families who must remain at home. Video Visits enable families to make "live" visits via Internet-linked video to their children abroad. WiRED establishes an Internet Access Center at the hospital, teaches hospital staff how to conduct a videoconference, and provides ongoing consultation and monitoring.

Through consultation, WiRED creates and manages specialized computer-based humanitarian programs tailored to specific community needs.  Starting in May 2001, WiRED will provide Internet Access Centers in four orphanages in and around Sarajevo.  Each orphanage houses some 500 children and youths between the ages of 4 and 15, many of whom lost their parents during the war. WiRed has collaborated with the U.S. Department of State to establish and manage seven free computer centers as part of its Kosovo Internet Access Initiative.

In the year 2000 alone, WiRED recorded more than a quarter-million on-line sessions among its seven Internet Centers in Kosovo and served 2,700 middle and high school students in 13 Internet Access Centers in Croatia. WiRed's Governing Board includes Billy D'Angelo, Holllywood film and TV producer; Ralph Daniels, former network executive for CBS and NBC; Guy Egger, former executive editor and researcher at NBC; Tatjana Grgich, President of the Tatjana Grgich Family Foundation; Saul Hamond, Hamond Safety Management, LLC in New York; Robert Ohrenshall, Chairman Emeritus of Addison Design in San Francisco; and Dr. Gary Selnow of San Francisco State University.

To learn more, click on www.wiredInternational.org.

Kosovar Children Undergoing Cancer Treatment in Italy "talk" with Families via Video Visits

In November 2000, WiRED/SFSU Global Learning Center launched its innovative "Video Visit" program.  The project enables families of seriously ill children undergoing treatment in European hospitals to have "live" visits via Internet-linked video.

With the click of a mouse, Blerim (age 12) and Airrulah (age 7) began a conversation that lasted for hours.  Blerim had been in Italy at the Hospital of Pisa since April and underwent a bone marrow transplant in October.  Airrullah has been in the same hospital for seven months and undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment for leukemia.  It had been too long since the medical staff had seen a smile on his pale and sunken face.  Blerim made up for the lost time as he chatted with his parents and six brothers and sisters.  He was especially delighted by the sight of his 1-year old baby sister on the monitor and the sound of her voice through the headset.  Airrullah grinned from ear to ear and even laughed as he talked with his father and seven brothers and sisters.  The families were equally excited as they assembled at the computer screen in an Internet Center in Pristina.  It was the first contact they had made with the boys since they were separated, and they were overjoyed to see that their sons were recovering and still chattering in their native language.  The boys are undergoing treatment in Italy because there are no treatment facilities in the Kosovo region.

According to Dr. Mauro Lazzeri, Medical Director at the hospital in Pisa, the fear and trauma of the treatment is often intensified by the children's separation from their families.  He noted that the effect of such a "Video Visit" could be nothing less than medically beneficial.

Join Health Campaign For Kids

The citywide Health Campaign for Kids, spearheading for drive to provide expanded health coverage to 5,000 children in the City's working families, need you to get involved!  Dozens of community groups, parents, youth and city residents have signed on to endorse the Campaign.  Supporters are urging Mayor Brown to put money in this year's budget to make sure that our children get the health benefits they need.  The Campaign meets at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center, 240 Shotwell.  Contact Joe at 414-239-0161 for more information.