irst I offer thanks to the Arab Gulf Programme for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) and to its president HRH Prince Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud for honoring our project and sponsoring a prize which recognizes that good work is being done in support of international development objectives and that such work deserves to be held up and honored. The encouragement this award gives to organizations like the Near East Foundation and those of my colleagues here is especially important in an international environment which generally maintains that development efforts are unsuccessful. 

"I would like to thank our supportive partner and funder of the project, The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development.  The Sawiris Foundation and NEF's Cairo-based Center for Development Services worked closely throughout in planning and development, showing how donor organizations can be intimately involved throughout a project.  I also pay tribute and offer appreciation to the staff of the Near East Foundation who developed and carried out the project.  They are committed to the philosophy which has guided the Near East Foundation since its beginnings 90 years ago when it began as America's response to the humanitarian crisis facing Armenian, Arab, Persian, Greek and Turkish refugees in the period of World War I and its aftermath.  At that time America's citizens, not its government, took responsibility for rescue and relief efforts among these people they did not know and formed the organization that became the Near East Foundation.  NEF's founders understood that to create a lasting solution to human need, more than relief efforts are required.  The Near East Foundation pioneered an approach they called 'practical citizen philanthropy.'  By this they meant assisting people to gain the skills and resources they need to help build their own better future, using an approach that seeks partnership and equality with no sense of domination or superiority.  It is this approach the Near East Foundation has continued to use throughout its history and still employs, one which encourages participation of the people we seek to assist and listens to their needs and plans, treating them with the dignity and respect they deserve.

"The reward of this approach is not only that the projects we work on together are more likely to be successful but, in the process, we build friendships and we build human beings.  Our staff has seen repeatedly over the years that dealing with people as dignified and honorable equals builds their capacity more than any training sessions or educational programs. 

"The project for which the Near East Foundation won the AGFUND International Prize for Pioneering Development Projects for 2004, enhancing nursing as a career in Upper Egypt, offers a perfect example. Three years ago when the Near East Foundation started working at nursing sector development with the Swairis Foundation, there were 170 applicants for Aswan's six nursing schools compared with this year's 535. Immediate employment in public health facilities has been found by 398 new nurses; and 443 new nursing jobs, including 74 for nursing teachers and supervisors, have been created.  While the project had many components, a key to its success was our ability to enhance the sense of dignity and respect that accrued to the career of nursing and therefore to the people who chose it as a career.

"Besides the most important aspect of this project—the enhancement of the lives of the women involved—I ask all of you to consider another aspect:  that a positive impact on the lives of even hundreds of people is a worthy goal and should be encouraged.  Looking at the overwhelming need in our world, too many people regard as worthwhile only projects which affect millions.  Hence they often conclude that the work of organizations like the Near East Foundation is luxury.  But every human life is of great value.   And every effort which enhances a human life is an important success.  I ask your continuing support of work like ours, and again I thank the AGFUND for recognizing its value and honoring the dedicated staff who commit their lives to such work."

ear East Foundation moved from its mid-Manhattan offices the first of the year, taking advantage of the end of its lease to benefit from financial incentives designed to attract occupancy downtown in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy.  Rental costs were cut nearly in half while square footage remains about the same at our newly renovated 90 Broad Street, 15th floor location in lower Manhattan’s Financial District.  It is convenient to public transportation for both staff and visitors; and a short walk from historic Bowling Green park with its view of the Hudson River and Statue of Liberty.

The NEF museum exhibition that debuted at the Museum of the City of New York in 2003, “Near East/New York:  The Near East Foundation and American Philanthropy,” toured to the West Coast, opening in October at the Doheny Memorial Library of the University of Southern California.  The NEF exhibition was on view through January.

In October NEF partnered with ArteEast--a nonprofit promoting the art and culture of the  Middle East and its diaspora--for the premiere screenings of two documentary films, one Palestinian, the other Israeli.  “Hopefully for the Best” (2004) by Raed Helou portrays Ramallah during the tense winter before the US-Iraq war.  “Mashallah” (2004) by Eytan Harris was inspired by the brutal murders of two cab drivers three days apart in Jerusalem--the first an Israeli Jew, the second a Palestinian and the absent subject of the film.  The films provoked a lively, at times passionate, post-screening discussion, which followed responses by NEF President Ryan LaHurd and Aissa Deebi, ArteEast’s visual arts director. 

The line went around the block for the February joint Near East Foundation-New York University Middle East Studies Department event.  Participants filled all seats, and unfortunately the Greenwich Village theatre could not accommodate all who wanted to attend.  The overflow audience came for a screening of the documentary film, “Control Room,” about the Al Jazeera television network, the Arab world’s most powerful broadcaster at work during the Iraq war. It was followed by a roundtable discussion including the film’s director, Jehane Noujaim, and producers Rosadel Varela and Hani Salama.  They were joined by Jay Rosen of NYU’s journalism department and Khaled Fahmy of Middle East/Islamic studies.  “Why did you do it?” asked a member of the audience.   “Our hope is that this film will give people a window into a different perspective”…”that people will question the media”…”gain an independent way of thought,” responded the three women filmmakers in turn.

In May NEF partnered with the Bard Program on Globalization and International Affairs, to present noted authority and commentator Fawaz A. Gerges, who spoke about the future of Middle East security.  He is professor of international affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sarah Lawrence College, and author of the new book, “The Jihadists.”

In the fall the NEF website www.neareast.org was redesigned for a sharper look and easier maneuvering with an ever increasing frequency of new postings—and steadily gained more daily average visitors over the following months.  The NEF annual report became an entirely on-line publication for the first time.

With generous funding by Antranig and Varsenne Sarkissian, a portable NEF exhibition was created, featuring seven panels about NEF’s history and one on present projects.  It was first used in October in South Pasadena, CA, at the Armenian National Committee of American, Western Region event, where NEF received the organization’s 2004 Freedom Award; again in February when NEF was among honorees for the Armenian Genocide commemorative “International Relief, Refuge and Recognition Tribute” luncheon in Los Angeles; and in April for the Congressional Armenian Genocide Observance held on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

In conjunction with NEF’s 90th anniversary year, a comprehensive three-part series of articles on our history, evolution, past and current projects, and influence was widely featured in the Armenian American press and excerpted in Arab American magazines such as “Islamic Horizons.”  An NEF anniversary announcement ran in “Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs,” a widely read magazine with an Arab American audience of 100,000; also in a prominent Armenian weekly, “The Armenian Reporter,” in Armenian Genocide commemorative issues in April.

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