BULLETIN RESPONDING TO TRAGEDIES SCHOLASTIC CANADA MAKES FIRST BOOKS DONATION TO THE ASIA FOUNDATION FOR THAILAND S TSUNAMI REGION SUMMER 2006

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1 BULLETIN W W W. A S I A F O U N D A T I O N. O R G SUMMER 2006 SCHOLASTIC CANADA MAKES FIRST BOOKS DONATION TO THE ASIA FOUNDATION FOR THAILAND S TSUNAMI REGION RESPONDING TO TRAGEDIES One of The Asia Foundation s longest running and most well-known programs, Books for Asia (BFA), has donated books and educational materials throughout the Asia region for 52 years. Most recently, BFA donated more than 80,000 English-language volumes to hundreds of Thai schools in communities affected by the tsunami. This collection of mostly primary and secondary level books and education materials was made possible by a donation from Scholastic Canada. The donation is being distributed in partnership with Books for Thailand, See Scholastic Canada, continued inside... Asia has experienced three major disasters in the past 18 months the December 2004 tsunami, the October 2005 earthquake in Pakistan, and the May 2006 earthquake in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. These calamities have killed thousands, and displaced millions. The Asia Foundation continues to explore appropriate responses to help those affected by the recent earthquake in Indonesia in partnership with Give2Asia, an organization established by The Asia Foundation to facilitate philanthropic giving to Asia. To ensure development programs are carried out in the most effective way, the Foundation s approach typically addressses systems and policies over the long-term. For example, post-tsunami programs have included: continued inside...

2 RESPONDING TO TRAGEDIES (CONTINUED FROM COVER) Undertaking a 16-month assessment of reconstruction efforts in Aceh, Indonesia, to identify areas that still require attention and improvement. Providing legal aid services to those in Southern Thailand who must resolve land ownership disputes, inheritance and unemployment issues, and adoptions of orphans. Working to reduce conflict in Sri Lanka by building local government bodies capacity to conduct participatory development planning; collect and manage financial resources; and improve local-level service delivery. Co-hosting a post-tsunami summit for donors, business, and community leaders to discuss coordinating aid efforts. Working to rebuild the fishing industry in affected areas of India. Give2Asia has established the Yogyakarta Earthquake Fund to raise funds for shortterm and long-term recovery. Give2Asia has also created funds for the Pakistan earthquake and the tsunami. These funds are supporting longer-term rebuilding efforts in damaged regions of Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India. As a result of its fundraising and coordination efforts, Give2Asia has successfully granted approximately $4 million for critical rebuilding needs in communities devastated by the tsunami. For more information and to donate to disaster response efforts, please visit MAKING A DIFFERENCE FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN ASIA: WOMEN S ADVANCEMENT FUND Millions of women and girls in Asia are caught in a vicious cycle of poverty, exploitation, and abuse without hope for a better life. The Asia Foundation s Women s Advancement Fund empowers severely disadvantaged women and girls by providing education, vocational training, microcredit, legal rights education, protection from trafficking or abuse, and other initiatives to improve their lives. The Fund supports local organizations in communities across Asia to give girls and women at the bottom of the economic and social ladder the means to a better life. Your contribution to the Women s Advancement Fund will give women the opportunity to build their confidence and succeed in making better lives for themselves and their families. For more information, or to make a gift, please visit our website, and go to How to Give or contact Kate Capossela at or kcapossela@asiafound.org.

3 SCHOLASTIC CANADA (CONTINUED FROM COVER) The Asia Foundation s partner in Thailand since 1996, and the Rotary Club of Patong Beach. Hundreds of Thai children lost one or both parents in the 2004 tsunami, and schools throughout the affected region still lack basic education supplies, reading materials, and textbooks. Sixteen months after this disaster, communities are still recovering from the loss of teachers and parents as well as school facilities and supplies, said Linda Gosnell, co-president, Scholastic Canada. Working with Books for Asia allowed us to ensure these books reached the children who need them most. Shipped from Books for Asia in San Francisco, they were received by Books for Thailand and sorted by the Rotary Club of Patong Beach. Through its network of members and resources, the Rotary Club identified recipient schools in need and coordinated local high school students and other volunteers to help sort the 190 title shipment. These books will not only restock libraries that were destroyed by the tsunami, they will also reach remote communities that previously did not have access to children s books, much less English-language materials. This donation responds to an increasing interest in learning English among young students and provides colorful children s picture books and education resources for needy communities. Our trusted partnership with Books for Asia and our coordination with the Rotary Club were key in our efforts to reach the children left vulnerable by the tsunami in a timely and effective manner, said Burin Kantabutra, vice chairman, Books for Thailand. Since its first donation to Thailand in 1970, Books for Asia has donated 2.5 million books to schools, public libraries, universities, and other institutions throughout the country. Since 1954, Books for Asia has distributed more than 41 million books, software programs, and other educational materials to more than 50,000 institutions in 40 countries. THE ASIA FOUNDATION LEGACY For more than half a century, The Asia Foundation has been dedicated to the development and growth of the Asia- Pacific region. Each year, through the valued support of our donors, we are able to continue, and even expand, programs that address Asia s most pressing needs. For our work to continue, however, the Foundation needs your help to meet the ever-increasing demands of the Asia- Pacific region. To establish more long-term solutions for the Foundation, this year we began a new planned giving program, The Asia Foundation Legacy. The Legacy program accepts, primarily, bequest gifts, though we are also equipped to handle more complex giving vehicles. Additionally, the Legacy program offers greater donation possibilities so that our donors can find the giving opportunity that is best suited to them. Help us continue to work toward a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific; let our legacy be your legacy. For more information about the Legacy program, visit Contact/plannedgiving.html, or contact Nicole Cooksey-Voytenko at or

4 PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS: RECENT ACHIEVEMENTS KOREA The Asia Foundation organized a public forum on Building an East Asian Community: Roles of America and Korea. Former U.S. Ambassadors Michael Armacost and J. Stapleton Roy, along with Professor Kim Tae-Hyo of Sung Kyun Kwan University, gave presentations on the rationale, prospects, and steps related to forming an East Asian community. This program was co-sponsored by the newly formed Korean Friends of The Asia Foundation, an individual and corporate membership group organized to support the aims and programs of the Foundation in Korea. PHILIPPINES The Philippines Center for Investigative Journalism and the Association of Philippine Broadcasters conducted three basic radio journalism courses for 81 Mindanao journalists in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga. The Philippines has been rated as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists; local journalists in the provinces are particularly vulnerable. SRI LANKA The Asia Foundation and the World Bank convened senior policymakers, conflict experts, and members of the diplomatic community in Washington D.C. to introduce the study, Aid, Conflict and Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka, which analyzes the current conflict in Sri Lanka and the role of international donors. The study was sponsored by the World Bank, and the Governments of the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. TAIWAN Sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Asia Foundation in Taiwan hosted the Forum on Prospects in Asia, which identified critical issues, shared opinions, and developed strategies for Asia-Pacific communities regarding the emerging China. Topics discussed included political, economic, and social perspectives. THAILAND The Asia Foundation, in cooperation with anti-trafficking organizations FACE, CPCR, and TRAFCORD, completed the final draft of a participatory training program that promotes multi-disciplinary professional teams comprised of police, prosecutors, social workers, non-governmental organizations, translators, and medical professionals to combat trafficking through victim protection and rehabilitation services. This is the first-ever formalized curriculum produced on this topic in Thailand. The curriculum is also being translated into English which will be available soon. VIETNAM Following the success of the first Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2005, the Foundation and its partner, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, repeated the index in 2006 as part of the larger U.S. Agency for International Development-funded Vietnam Competitiveness Initiative. PCI 2006, released in June in Hanoi, gathered the input of 6,300 Vietnamese private sector firms to understand differences in private sector dynamism and growth from one province to another. The index assesses all 64 provinces in 10 key areas of economic governance affecting the local business environment: business establishment costs, land access and security of tenure, transparency and access to information, time costs of regulatory compliance, informal charges, state-sector bias, pro-activity of provincial leadership, private sector development services, labor training, and confidence in legal institutions. Well received by both government and business, this project demonstrates the close and critical link between research and policy in an exciting, concrete, and informative way. More detailed information can be found in the summary report at

5 TRUSTEES S TA F F S P O T L I G H T BOARD OF TRUSTEES William L. Ball, III Chairman of the Board Michael H. Armacost Vice Chairman of the Board Douglas Bereuter President Susan J. Pharr, Secretary Paul S. Slawson Treasurer Terrence B. Adamson David R. Andrews Mary Brown Bullock Alexander D. Calhoun, Esq. William H.C. Chang Scott D. Cook Gina H. Despres Theodore L. Eliot, Jr. Thomas S. Foley Harry Harding Ta-lin Hsu James Andrew Kelly Ellen Laipson Chien Lee Chong-Moon Lee Lee Hong-Koo Janet A. McKinley Surin Pitsuwan Milbrey Rennie J. Stapleton Roy Leslie Tang Schilling Robert A. Theleen Linda Tsao Yang Alice Young TRUSTEES EMERITI: William S. Anderson A.W. Clausen Ernest M. Howell Robert H. Knight Lucian W. Pye Robert A. Scalapino Walter Shorenstein MELONEY C. LINDBERG Deputy Country Representative Meloney Lindberg is a deputy country representative in the Foundation s Kabul Afghanistan office where she oversees programs on women s empowerment related to women s rights and access to justice and increasing educational opportunities for girls and women. Meloney started with the Foundation in 1994 as an intern in the Nepal office working on a community mediation study. She then was a program officer for the Nepal office from and worked on a nationwide legal literary program for women. In 2002, Meloney returned to the Foundation as assistant representative for the Philippines office and in 2004 transferred to the Afghanistan office in the same capacity. In the four years I worked for the Foundation in Nepal, I could see that what they were doing was having a real impact on people s lives. The approaches used were transparent and culturally sensitive. I was also impressed by the way the Foundation worked with its civil society partners to nurture and mentor them. From , Meloney worked on a worldwide grants program focusing on women s empowerment. Many of the Asian organizations that responded on developing innovative women s legal rights projects were or had been grantees of The Asia Foundation, which led to Meloney s return to the Foundation. Among the Afghanistan office s many recent accomplishments, Meloney is particularly proud of the Foundation s support of the rebuilding of a resource center at Rabia-e-Balkhi Girls High School in Kabul, a school almost completely destroyed by the war. I am always learning something new, particularly from colleagues and the many partners we have. There are many like-minded people who work hard, always seek to do better, and are extremely collaborative.

6 P.O. Box San Francisco, California PROGRAMS Afghanistan Bangladesh Cambodia China East Timor Hong Kong India Indonesia Japan Korea Laos Malaysia Mongolia Nepal Pacific Island Nations Pakistan Philippines Singapore Sri Lanka Taiwan* Thailand Vietnam OFFICES ASIA Bangkok Beijing Colombo Dhaka Dili Hanoi Hong Kong Islamabad Jakarta Kabul Kathmandu Kuala Lumpur Manila Phnom Penh Seoul Taipei* Tokyo Ulaanbaatar UNITED STATES San Francisco Washington, D.C. * In Taiwan, The Asia Foundation operates through a partnership with the Asia Foundation in Taiwan, a locally incorporated non-governmental, non-profit organization. The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. The Foundation supports programs in Asia that help improve governance and law, women s empowerment, economic reform and development, and international relations. Drawing on more than 50 years of experience in Asia, the Foundation collaborates with private and public partners to support leadership and institutional development, exchanges, and policy research. With a network of 18 offices throughout Asia, an office in Washington, D.C., and its headquarters in San Francisco, the Foundation addresses these issues on both a country and regional level. In 2005, the Foundation provided more than $61 million in program support and distributed 1.1 million books and educational materials valued at more than $28 million throughout Asia. For more information about The Asia Foundation or to make a contribution, visit HEADQUARTERS 465 California Street, 9th Floor San Francisco, CA USA Tel: (415) Fax: (415) info@asiafound.org WASHINGTON, D.C Massachusetts Avenue, NW Suite 815 Washington, D.C USA Tel: (202) Fax: (202) info@asiafound-dc.org