Managua, Nicaragua - Ten American professionals working through the Washington, DC-based, nonprofit aid organization, Partners of the Americas (Partners), have earned the President’s Volunteer Service Award in recognition of their international voluntary service.  The awards were presented during the Wisconsin/Nicaragua Partners of the Americas Summit in Managua, Nicaragua held October 20-22, 2006. 

Myrka Dellanos, two-time Emmy Award winning journalist and member of the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, presented the PVSAs to the ten volunteers at the awards ceremony that was attended by 150 guests.  Speakers at the summit included Nicaragua’s Secretary General of Education, Hortencia Rivas, and the United States Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli. The list of award winners is attached.
 
“I was really impressed with the Wisconsin volunteers who were honored with the PVSA and with their love and caring for the Nicaraguan people,” said Dellanos.

Jack Hawkins, director of the Office of Volunteers for Prosperity, U.S. Agency for International Development, said “Partners of the Americas was one of the first organizations to join the Volunteers for Prosperity partner network and their volunteers are truly deserving of such recognition.” 

Volunteers for Prosperity (VfP) is a presidential initiative that promotes international voluntary service by skilled American professionals.  Service through VfP is flexible, with assignments ranging from a week to months or even years.  Volunteers work under the direction of private voluntary organizations in activities that support the U.S. government’s agenda for global health and prosperity.  More than 200 organizations have joined the VfP network since it was established by President Bush on September 25, 2003 through executive order.

Doctors, educators and other professionals earned the prestigious award for service in various cities throughout Nicaragua, a partner country with Partners of the Americas. The award recipients developed community health projects; shared skills in effective gardening; helped develop libraries; community water purification projects, and provided technical assistance for quality milk production in rural areas in Nicaragua. The volunteers also helped create Learning Centers – self sufficient community-based centers that offer a wide range of vocational skills such as baking, carpentry, cosmetology, and small business management.

Wisconsin volunteers Arlen Albrecht, Bob Bowen, Brad Martin, Judy Miller, Lynda Pracht, and Amy Wiza received Gold PVSAs; and Mike McCord, Joanne Selkurt, and Linda Weber received Silver PVSAs.

Lucy Harvey, a longtime Partners volunteer, received both the Gold PVSA and the President’s Call to Service Award.  The latter award is in recognition of over 4000 hours of volunteer service in a lifetime.  Harvey had completed an estimated 16,000 hours of service during her decades of volunteer commitment.

The Wisconsin/Nicaragua Summit celebrated 40 years of a partnership between the two chapters that have worked on successful joint community projects in areas such as education, agriculture and economic empowerment.

Partners of the Americas, founded in 1964, links U.S. states with Latin American and Caribbean countries in partnerships that use the energy and skills of citizen volunteers, their institutions and communities to address shared concerns of social, economic and cultural development. Its work covers areas as diverse as emergency preparedness, agriculture, cultural and educational exchange, domestic violence and local government strengthening. Partners is a private, nonprofit, non-partisan organization with international offices in Washington, D.C.  For more information, please visit www.partners.net.

Volunteers for Prosperity was established by Executive Order in September 2003.  VfP works with leading U.S. non-profits and companies to deploy highly skilled American professionals in volunteer opportunities that support the global health and prosperity goals of the U.S. Government.  VfP is part of the USA Freedom Corps, the White House’s coordinating council on volunteerism.  The VfP Office at the US Agency for International Development serves as the initiative’s interagency coordinator.  For more information, please visit www.volunteersforprosperity.gov.

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