AFS Wins ASAE Associations Make a Better World Award.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2003

AFS Intercultural Programs was selected the winner in the social achievement category of the 2003 Associations Make a Better World awards program that recognizes outstanding association programs and projects that make a significant contribution to societies and economies worldwide. The award is administered by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE) in coordination with the Global Forum of Societies of Association Executives.

AFS (formerly the American Field Service) was honored for connecting Muslim and non-Muslim peoples in different cultural settings. ASAE said, "Moved by the events of September 11, 2001, AFS successfully engaged its network of organizations to increase understanding, communication and cooperation between Muslim and non-Muslim peoples, resulting in a wide variety of activities including educational forums, community service, outreach to Muslim immigrant populations in Western countries, and several first-time intercultural exchanges between Muslim and non-Muslim countries worldwide."

Projects undertaken by AFS-USA and its partner organizations in Iceland, Indonesia, Egypt, Brazil, Costa Rica, Malaysia, China, Turkey, Hungary, Belgium, Russia, Germany, Thailand, and Italy contributed to the award. In July 2002, AFS-USA was selected by the U.S. Department of State to work with the Saudi Gazette to send 20 American teenagers to Saudi Arabia on a three-week exchange program. This year, AFS-USA was selected as the recipient of a $2.95 million grant under the Partners for Understanding Youth Exchange Program (YES). As part of the YES Program, AFS-USA is providing scholarships to students from Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.

"Through the challenges of the past half century, AFS has continued to work for intercultural understanding through educational exchanges," said Alex J. Plinio, President and CEO of AFS-USA whose mission it is to build a more just and peaceful world. "We have found that it's possible to lessen misunderstanding between countries, as AFS learned when we began our student exchanges with Germany and Japan in the late 1940's. The effectiveness of students as citizen ambassadors has been proven over the course of more than 55 years."

For more information, visit www.asaenet.org/betterworld or contact ASAE's Global Resource Center at [phone] or [e-mail], and for AFS programs call 1-800-AFS-INFO or visit www.afs.org/usa.