Letter from the Director

All of us know what it is like to be far from home. For many of you, your residence at SID was a year or two without seeing your families, often including children. This is one of the reasons we have worked so hard to make SID and the Heller School your extended family.

Each year some of our students are particularly troubled by events at home. With students from 50 to 60 countries annually, unfortunately there never is a time when the trauma of war or civil conflict does not affect some students. Over the years, students from Bosnia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Sri Lanka, among others have phoned home nervously to check on families and friends. Our many students from Kenya this year are experiencing this shock.

This issue of the GAeN is devoted to all those alums who work in troubled spots. While only a few are mentioned, I am proud of all who have sought to bring solace and help to those victims of conflict so displaced and lost. And I am aware each day of the sacrifice that all of you are willing to make for the career you chose. We remember our three alums from the class of 2004 who lost their lives while deeply engaged in their work: Guillaume Kakanou while working for the Carter Center in the Congo, Matt Preece while on assignment for World Wildlife Fund in Nepal, and Mironda Heston while building a rural health clinic in Haiti. We know that poverty is an incubator for violence. The poor are the victims of history, of prejudice, of lousy governance, of a world that relegates half of its family to degradation and vulnerability unimagined in the rich world.

We are one community of alums and faculty and staff that has been building for the last 15 years. This year we will number over 800 alums spread around the world. That might seem small but then again 800 people emerging as thought leaders in their organizations and their countries can be the catalyst for the humane and just development policies we try to teach at SID. Keep up the good work…and keep in touch!

Laurence Simon