The Women of Global Nomads Group
Every one of these successful, independent women sits on the Board of Directors for GNG. Read how this simple mission has created such a stir for them.
Amy
Eldon
Executive Director
OneGlobalTribe.org
I remember one video conference in particular between
students in Nairobi, Kenya, and South Central Los Angeles.
The first few minutes were very intense - everyone was
self conscious and I was worried about how we were going
to break through.
When we asked one of the young LA kids, what he thought he had in common with the kids in Nairobi, there was a long pause and suddenly it dawned on him: "I think we all have women issues." The ensuing laughter broke the barriers and allowed the kids to have an open and lively conversation.
I have witnessed these moments over and over, between young Jews and Palestinians, Americans and Iraqis, and liberals and conservatives.
Having been brought up in Nairobi and London, and educated in international schools, I understand the importance of direct cross-cultural experience, something almost impossible to achieve. When I learned about GNG, I thought it was a perfect way to create understanding through the direct and personal experience of other cultures. GNG became an ideal resource for our organization, OneGlobalTribe, in offering youth-to-youth connections around the world.
Through GNG, kids discover that they can begin to resolve not only their women issues, but tackle the challenges that face their families, their communities, and our world.
Beth Rickman
Former UPI Radio Correspondent, Film Music Agent,
Studio Executive and Producer
I have been involved with GNG since its inception, fortunate enough to witness and be a part of this dream. I have been able to use my experience and connections to serve as a consultant for the group. Working with these four young American pioneers and witnessing the effect their work has had on thousands of American teenagers and their peers around the world has been, next to raising two daughters, a stepdaughter and a stepson, the most rewarding experience of my life.
Having American teens and their peers in Iraq, two weeks before the war, sharing their lives, gave both sides an opportunity to dispel stereotypes. Most of the same group met two weeks after major combat ended, and it was a conference that will live in the hearts and minds of all who participated.
The dedication of these four to bring an understanding of the world to American teens is unprecedented. They inspire me and continually teach me about hope for this world at a time when it is truly needed.
Carole
Aciman
Counsel at Hughes Hubbard & Reed
LLP, and President of the National Conference of Women's
Bar Associations
For a number of years, I have represented organizations that work to influence the world in a positive way. What drew me to GNG's board is first and foremost their pioneer approach to fostering dialogue and understanding among young people around the world by connecting them via state-of-the-art video technology. GNG is empowering them to challenge preconceived ideas about others and to understand differences among them which could be important in the long term to help better our world.
I have always been very impressed with the GNG management team's sense of conviction, energy and determination. This is an organization that has found the way to turn its vision into a reality and to leverage strong relationships with a number of other organizations both in the not-for-profit and corporate world to maximize its opportunities to succeed.
Jackie Bezos
President, Bezos Family Foundation
Our decision to support Global Nomads Group came as a result of the realization that although globalization has many positive impacts, it also has some unanticipated effects. Global Nomads Group realizes the complexity of globalization and has developed a way for our young people to get to know one another "face to face."
When I first met Chris, Jonathan, Mark and David, they were living together in one big room with a mezzanine. Their beds were lined up on the floor in a room with no walls and the office was in the mezzanine. Each young man was working full time at jobs: Chris worked in a liquor warehouse; Jonathan was loading trucks at a UPS loading dock; Mark was a waiter; David, who had just arrived in the US, was living off of his small savings and searching for a job. At the same time, they had formed Global Nomads Group whose mission was nothing short of changing the world by connecting young people. Many of us have worked similar jobs; very few of us have done so to form a non-profit with such staggering goals. This was the year 2000.
Since that meeting, I have been privileged to be a part of their mission.
We live in a time of escalating cultural conflict. Technology has brought the cultures of the world closer together and has created an opportunity for greater cultural awareness. Global Nomads Group helps advance cross-cultural understanding and peaceful co-existence, and I am proud to be a supporter.
Katherine O'Hearn
ABC News, Executive Producer THIS WEEK with George
Stephanopoulos
As a TV professional I could fully appreciate how difficult it was to pull off what these guys had done - and I was totally jazzed by it. They were using the tools of my craft to try and change the world, one classroom at a time. Their work has already reached so many young people and I continue to be amazed by their continuing, aggressive new initiatives.
It's been fun to counsel - and learn from - these extraordinary young men.
Lara Plutte-Breitenbach
MSW, MA
As a social worker, educator, documentary producer and mother, I believe in the core conviction of GNG: that future peace can only evolve if the architects of our future, our children, have the chance to really see one another, speak with honest hearts & open minds, and truly teach & learn from each other.
In my experience with the GNG programs, I have literally watched children change & grow within an hour’s time. Surface misunderstandings mold into deeper understandings and a greater realization that, as young people, they are in this global life adventure together, dependent on one another for their dreams to come true. I see these changes not only in the young GNG participants but in everyone involved, including myself. GNG challenges us and makes us grow into better human beings, making our world a better one.
I am honored to be a GNG board member.
Two weeks before the United States military launched its "shock-and-awe" strike on Baghdad, high school students in Bloomfield, Connecticut, went to their international studies class where, thanks to the work of the New York City-based nonprofit organization Global Nomads Group (GNG), these students were about to get the most memorable social studies lesson of their lives. Teachers turned on the television and began an hour-long live videoconference with Iraqi teens at a Baghdad high school
Some of the U.S. students’ family members had already been deployed to the Middle East for the impending conflict, and many of the Iraqi students believed the U.S. government was pining after their country’s oil reserves. But when the students began communicating, says GNG co-founder Christopher Plutte, "they realized they had so much in common. They all played soccer, and they all listened to Eminem. They had this common bond beyond the political or cultural differences. At the root of it all, they were just kids and for just a moment, they turned off the TV, closed the book, and went directly to the source."
At the end of the hour, Stacy, a 15-year-old from Bloomfield said, "here in the U.S. it’s kind of sad we don't get a good perception of the Iraqi people. We see the politics of it, not the actual people living their day to day routine." And Sari, a 16-year-old Iraqi girl, came to a similar conclusion: "The media has the biggest role in making false ideas about people. I don't like riding camels and you don't look like cowboys."
Founded in 1998 by four college friends, GNG uses videoconferencing technology to promote cross-cultural dialogue and understanding among the world’s youth. Plutte, 30, who grew up in California, says his own high school experience taught him little about the world beyond his home. "I left high school thinking that Africa was a country, not a continent with 53 independent countries," he says.
He also notes that American youth scored second to last among nine countries in the National Geographic Society’s Global Geographic Literacy Survey. "There is a gap in American education that needs to be filled."
That’s why the four friends decided to bankroll GNG off of their American Express cards, working part-time jobs to pay them off. Now, eight years later, GNG is receiving support from public figures such as Jimmy Carter, and their new spokesperson, actor Michael Douglas.
"It all comes down to a chance to make a difference."
With that to guide them, the group chooses its broadcast destinations based on their relevance to key global issues. Their newest program, Currents, tackled the AIDS epidemic worldwide. Taped during the fall of 2005 in a partnership with Semester at Sea, Currents followed U.S. college students as they traveled by ship to countries as diverse as Venezuela and Vietnam to witness the effects of HIV and AIDS on young people.
"Within the time frame of just one semester you can really look at a subject on a global scale," Plutte says of the high school students who were connected to U.S. schools via videoconference from each of the ship’s nine stops. "Students here were able to learn the unique stigmas in each country. For instance, in South America If you walk in to get an AIDS test, you’re branded as a homosexual. In South Africa, it’s generally accepted that anybody can get HIV, but only the poor people develop AIDS because the wealthy people can buy their own meds. Then you go into India, where the number of AIDS patients is going to surpass Africa in the next ten years, and you have students who have had no sex education courses."
Past programs have not been any more timid in their focus, and include bringing together Christian, Muslim, and Jewish students to discuss their diverse holiday traditions; allowing American, Australian, Indian, and Pakistani students to meet to propose solutions to terrorism after 9/11; and sharing the stories of teenage genocide survivors in Rwanda.
"When we spent time with genocide survivors in Rwanda, kids in rural areas like Kansas, Texas, and Ohio wanted to raise money for the orphans." Some created programs to help their new Rwandan friends, such as "Wear-Your-Hat-to-School Day" - a program where students could wear their hat in class (usually a no-no) as long as they donated a dollar to the project.
But Plutte is the first to admit that GNG has, at times, encountered some resistance at the schools, especially in response to the HIV/AIDS and Iraq broadcasts. "Many administrators where reluctant to have their students talk about how to protect oneself from contracting HIV," he says. "And with Iraq, a few people questioned why we would connect our American youth with the ‘enemy.’" But still, there is more positive feedback than negative —— especially from progressive educators who want to provide a platform for their students to discover the world."
Perhaps one of the most powerful moments for GNG was the follow-up broadcast with the students in Baghdad, six weeks after the war in Iraq began. Despite the obvious danger, a GNG crew flew to Amman, Jordan, and traveled by car to Baghdad. "We felt that we had to go back and make sure these students were fine and allow this communication to continue," says Plutte. The Baghdad school wasn’t in session, but GNG located about a dozen students from the last videoconference and gathered them on the roof of a private home for the broadcast. As the students in Bloomfield looked on, they could see buildings smoldering in the background. "There was this sense of relief that everyone from the first broadcast had survived the war," says Plutte. "And then there was also some time for the Iraqi kids to clarify themselves from the first time they spoke, now that they could share how they really felt about Saddam Hussein." This time the broadcast was streamed live on the Internet, and students from dozens of other U.S. high schools watched the encounter.
For Plutte and his fellow founders, when it comes to the future of GNG, the sky is the limit —— both for the organization and the potential for student learning.
"What are you going to do with what you witness? Are you going to keep that in your journal, or your scrapbook? Or are you going to take that information and try to do something with it? For me, and for the team that I work with, I think we’ve seen so much that you can’t just sit there and forget about it. We have to let other young people know about it - and hopefully at the end of the day, motivate these young people to be part of the change."
Recently, after seeing footage from GNG’s Rwanda project, a high school student at an inner city school in Cleveland, Ohio, says he was forever changed. "I didn’t realize how good I have it," said the teenager, whose own family lives near the poverty line. "My mom used to tell me people would die to be in my shoes, but I didn’t realize it until I met these kids in Rwanda." Plutte says he’ll never forget that moment.
"This is coming from a kid who has absolutely nothing," he says. "And for him to say that —— that goes beyond any paycheck we can ever get."
-Sarah Jio
How It Works and How to Get Involved
GNG —— funded through a variety of sources, such as the technology company, Polycom Worldwide, private foundations and donors, and a nominal $100 — $150 fee from participating U.S. schools —— sends a crew to an international location, where their cameras focus in on the lives of students in a particular country. Sometimes the videoconferences provide a classroom-to-classroom exchange, other times GNG distributes live remote broadcasts to schools around the world.
This spring the organization will bring its cameras to Mozambique.
If your are interested in supporting Global Nomads Group, or if you are a teacher or the parent of a high school and you would like more information about the organization’s programming, visit www.gng.org.
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