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 The following article, "Promoting Understanding and Friendship," written by Dan Ehl, is an excerpt from the
Newton Daily News. The article appeared on February 3, 1999, in the Wednesday edition on pages 1A
and 7A. Seeds of Inspiration Bob Anderson said his interest
in world affairs and foreign cultures was first stirred by a visiting English teacher from Japan in the early 1970s. He went on to sponsor a family of eight refugees from the war in Vietnam, many who still live in Newton. In the scope of world events, the fate of a handful of people is
hardly worth mentioning, unless you happen to be a member of that family or the people they have touched. It was these one-on-one experiences that ultimately led Anderson to routinely crisscross the globe and host guests from Bulgaria to Mongolia, from Russia to Korea.
Promoting Educational Exchanges Anderson is president of IRIS, Inc., a nonprofit organization based in his large rural Kellogg home that has been active in promoting democracy and a free market system in the former Soviet republics and the satellite countries of Eastern Europe. IRIS contracts with the U.S. Information Agency, which has been promoting professional and educational exchanges for more than 50 years.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain, more emphasis is being given to the countries that in general speak Russian as a second language. This central Iowa organization is now probably better known outside our state and national borders than it is in Jasper County. Journalists, bankers, government officials, business leaders and doctors from around the world have come to IRIS to intern in Iowa and live with local host families. They take these experiences and pass them on when they return home.
Laying the Groundwork Anderson arrived where he was by a winding route, first becoming an Iowa legislator while still teaching journalism in Newton, then being voted into office as lieutenant governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1987. He began his first official work with internationalism as director of the fledgling Iowa Peace Institute in Grinnell from 1986 to 1993. It was this learning experience with the workings of nonprofit
organizations, government programs, foreign bureaucracies and a variety of cultures that laid the ground-work for IRIS, which he founded in 1993. The organization was originally called the International Center for Community Journalism, a combination of
Anderson’s two enthusiasms. Journalists were brought to Iowa where they stayed at host homes and interned at newspapers across central Iowa and even in Muscatine and Dubuque. Several stayed in Newton and interned at the Newton Daily News. One of them, Alexander Zhabskiy frm Volgodonsk, Russia, returned home to create a sister-newspaper relationship between the Volgodonsk Weekly and the Daily News. Articles continue to be traded between the two publications, one of the only efforts of its kind in the nation.
Broadening the Scope Anderson and IRIS were also a key stimulus in creating OPEN (Organization Promoting Everlasting Neighbors),
Newton’s sister-city organization, that maintains close ties with sister-city, Smila, Ukraine. It has also assisted in establishing similar sister-city relations for Oskaloosa and Adel, as well as funding support for these efforts in Marshalltown, Muscatine, Cedar Rapids, Waverly, Adel and Oskaloosa. These initiatives ultimately led to a sister state
relationship between Iowa and the Cherkassy region in Ukraine. Anderson broadened the scope of IRIS to now include a number of professions and field, changing the name to Iowa Resources for International Service. He also created a for-profit organization called Global Ventures, with emphasis on teaching English and American culture to business leaders from such Asian countries as
Japan, South Korea and Thailand. Almost 250 participants have since traveled to Iowa from Armenia, Bulgaria, China, Georgia, Indonesia, Japan, Mongolia, Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine. Two journalists from Bulgaria and Thailand
wrote books related to their experiences from Iowa newspapers. The Thai book, said Anderson, was the first of its kind in that country to discuss and develop a code of ethics for journalists in Thailand. Vladimir Bassis, who now divides his time between Newton and his home city of Cherkasy, Ukraine, originally came to the
U.S. through an IRIS program. He is director of the CIS program for IRIS which covers efforts with the former Soviet republics and satellite countries. While here, he wrote a book about Ukraine. He also teaches Russian and Ukrainian culture in the Newton Community School District.
Anderson’s wife, Judith, coordinates the international training programs for IRIS. A former Iowa Peace Institute employee, she taught high school and counseled students. She holds a master’s degree in guidance and counseling and has received training in mediation and conflict resolution.
……… Anderson noted that before the Asian economic collapse, Global Ventures was able to subsidize some of IRIS’s expenses. That is no longer possible. In the past, Anderson said, IRIS has directed most of its own public relation efforts overseas – to the point where the organization receives its greatest recognition outside Iowa. He’s like that to change to let Iowans know what kind of unique work is occurring in their own backyard. IRIS already utilizes a great deal of volunteer efforts, but he’d like to see that expand into contributions to keep the program growing since matching federal grants are available.
Encouraging Rural Values While these foreign visitors are here, Anderson said they take advantage of their rural location to promote another idea. Next to world population growth, he said, population migration is the next greatest threat to a stable world. He pointed to the large move of rural populations to urban centers, creating health and social problems in cities overtaxed by the growth.
When visitors come to central Iowa, he said, they can see that good standards of living and education are possible in rural areas. Anderson’s belief that one-on-one encounters can make a difference continues. He said that though harsh economic times remain in the former Soviet republics, most participants in IRIS have been able to improve their own lives when they returned home. And many of the personal encounters they made while in Iowa continue to this day, making the world a bit smaller and
safer through understanding and friendship. |
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