UN Event Nov 19 -- World ORT's 130 Years of Global Social Change in 100 Countries

New York (PRWEB) November 16, 2009 -- World ORT’s 130 years of leadership and accomplishments in contributing to global social change will be celebrated in an event at U.N. Headquarters in New York on November 19, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the 4th floor Delegates Dining Hall. (Editorial Note to Media: Kindly RSVP so that we can send you by mail or messenger a printed invitation and put you on our press/guest list, per U.N. protocol.)

Since its inception in 1880, World ORT that has benefited three million people of many races and religions in 100 countries around the world.

The U.N. event will highlight World ORT’s 130 years of global accomplishments, which currently benefit more than 250,000 people annually, including aiding the development of new and post-communist democracies, promoting women’s rights and business opportunities, assisting orphaned children and families of AIDS victims, helping rebuild local communities after natural disasters such as the 2004 tsunami, and providing vocational and job training to the impoverished and to at-risk youth in 100 countries.

According to World ORT’s President, French biotechnology scientist Dr. Jean de Gunzburg, who will host the U.N. event, “We are honored to be able to celebrate this major milestone of World ORT’s 130 years of work providing opportunities for people to fulfill their potential and achieve self-reliance. This is the very foundation upon which just, democratic and self-sustaining societies are built. Our aim is to enable people to lead independent lives as contributing members of the local communities in which they live.”     

World ORT is recognized and supported by the U.N. and receives funding for its work from Citigroup, Coca-Cola, Exxon Mobil, Hewlett Packard, Western Union, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, the City of Geneva, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Examples of World ORT’s Accomplishments, Worldwide

In Albania, World ORT aided the transition from communist rule by providing vocational and business training to 26,000 people, many of whom were former political prisoners who had been barred from schools and universities.

In Montenegro, World ORT provides training and technical assistance to local NGOs to identify public policy concerns and promote democratic advocacy. World ORT has also aided new democracies in Bosnia, Moldova and South Africa.

In India and Sri Lanka, World ORT established trauma counseling services following the 2004 tsunami and set up livelihood training programs for 1,000 women who had lost their bread-winner husbands. Also in the aftermath of the tsunami, 20,000 Indian students received job skills educational assistance, including computer training, from World ORT.

In urban Buenos Aries, Argentina, World ORT provided hundreds of impoverished youths with state-of-the art career skills training in radio and TV broadcasting technologies.

In Ghana, World ORT trained 250 farmers to grow fair trade organic crops for export and funded a solar food dryer for a women’s agricultural business collective.

Under a grant from USAID, World ORT provided training to help community groups in post-apartheid South Africa address social needs and obtain funding.

World ORT conducts technical educational programs in the Central African Republic, Rwanda, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

In Namibia, World ORT recently completed a vocational training program for more than 10,000 orphaned, at-risk children whose parents had died of AIDS.

In Mali, World ORT trained 500 women in 50 villages in the manufacture of handicrafts for local sale and for export.

In Guinea, World ORT trained 15,000 farmers in sustainable forestry techniques.

About World ORT

World ORT was founded by Jews in Tsarist Russia in 1880 to give technical instruction to other Russian Jews to enable them to enter the industrial work force for the first time in their history. Since then, World ORT has provided non-sectarian vocational training and democratic community development services for three million disadvantaged people of many races and religions in 100 countries worldwide, and currently benefits 250,000 people annually.

World ORT manages a global network of secondary and industrial schools, technical institutes, junior colleges, teacher training institutions, adult education and business programs. World ORT’s mission “to help people help themselves” is applied throughout the world. World ORT is a major provider of long-term technical assistance that meets local needs and builds self-sustainable, long-term capacity. World ORT is comprised of three regional offices, which are located in Geneva, Washington, DC, and Johannesburg, and an administrative office in London. www.ort.org

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