[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 3]
[Senate]
[Pages 4151-4152]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     VERMONTERS MAKING A DIFFERENCE

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I have been privileged to serve Vermonters 
for many years as a voice on foreign policy matters, and I am always 
reminded that my work is a reflection of the outward looking posture of 
the people of my State. Vermonters have a long history of defending 
human rights and social justice at home and abroad. The longest 
functioning international exchange program is based in Vermont, and 
there are over 3,600 nonprofits registered in Vermont that are carrying 
out programs to protect the environment, support public health, and 
many other activities here and abroad.
  These small businesses help bring Vermont values to such far off 
places as Vietnam, central Africa, the Middle East, and Central 
America. One example of the far-reaching contributions Vermont small 
businesses make every day is the BOMA Project. Based in Manchester, VT, 
Kathleen Colson started the BOMA Project in the mid-2000s as a way to 
help women in Kenya escape extreme poverty. Kathleen's company replaces 
loans with grants and creates opportunities for these women to start 
small, sustainable income-generating businesses. To date, her company 
has launched over 1,100 micro-enterprises across northern Kenya.
  Other examples of Vermont organizations doing innovative work to 
improve the lives of people overseas are the Institute for Sustainable 
Communities, Pure Water for the World, Clear Path International, the 
ARAVA Institute for Environmental Studies, and World Learning. And 
there are many others.
  A February 10, 2013, article by the Associated Press quoted Peace 
Corps recruiter Brian Melman as he spoke about the people who work with 
these Vermont organizations: ``These are people who are willing to 
think big with small resources. They will go out of their way to make 
relationships with anyone that they can and to make believers out of 
all they come across because the passion is so genuine.'' That article, 
entitled ``Vt. home to many worldwide development groups,'' is notable 
because it points out the many ways our small State has contributed in 
a big way to those less fortunate all across the globe. I ask unanimous 
consent that a copy of the article be printed in the Record.

  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record as follows:

               [From the Associated Press, Feb. 10, 2013]

             VT. Home to Many Worldwide Development Groups

                            (By Wilson Ring)

       Dorset, VT. (AP).--From a converted garage in Dorset, James 
     Hathaway helps rid Afghanistan and Vietnam of land mines. A 
     few miles away in Manchester, Kathleen Colson helps women in 
     northern Kenya start businesses.

[[Page 4152]]

       They are just a few of the nonprofit, non-governmental 
     organizations that call Vermont home while doing work 
     worldwide in fields as varied as promoting democracy or clean 
     water. Besides working on development projects in some of the 
     remotest and neediest parts of the globe, the organizations 
     are also pumping millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs 
     into the Vermont economy.
       ``These are people who are willing to think big with small 
     resources. They will go out of their way to make 
     relationships with anyone that they can and to make believers 
     out of all they come across because the passion is so 
     genuine,'' said Peace Corps recruiter Brian Melman, who 
     earned a graduate degree at the University of Vermont in 
     Burlington and has also lived in Montpelier.
       ``There are people in Vermont who accomplish amazing things 
     with just about nothing,'' he said.
       While many of the organizations are small, taken as a 
     whole, Vermont's international nonprofit sector appears to 
     boost the state's economy.
       Though precise figures for international nonprofits are 
     hard to come by, a 2011 Vermont Community Foundation report 
     found that 3,626 domestic and international nonprofit 
     organizations bring $2.5 billion to the state, about 12 
     percent of the gross state product.
       Some groups do local fundraisers. Others attract grant 
     money from foundations while the larger ones work on 
     contracts with government agencies.
       The Montpelier-based Institute for Sustainable Communities, 
     formed in 1991, does environmental, health care and other 
     projects in Serbia, China, India and Bangladesh. It's working 
     with Burlington's Champlain College to learn more about the 
     international organizations in Vermont.
       ``There's a wealth of global experience hidden in our hills 
     and valleys, and most people don't know it,'' said vice 
     president Barbara McAndrew. ``Putting together a real picture 
     of Vermont's international footprint helps us build 
     connections between people working in the same regions. It 
     can raise our profile with national and international funders 
     and it helps us attract and retain talented people.''
       Melman said that the same sense of community and the desire 
     to help that he sees in Peace Corps volunteers is what led 
     Vermonters to form nonprofits, in many cases based on work 
     they did while overseas in the Peace Corps or other service. 
     Vermont, per capita, produces more Peace Corps volunteers 
     than any other state.
       Burlington, he said, ``was just absolutely awash with 
     nonprofits,'' Melman said. ``We used to joke that there were 
     more nonprofits than people.''
       One of Vermont's first international NGOs was the 
     Brattleboro-based organization now known as World Learning. 
     The organization employs 185 people and does work with 
     education, exchange, and development programs in more than 60 
     countries. It was founded in 1932.
       ``Even back then, Vermont was attracting innovative, 
     different thinking individuals,'' said Simon Norton of World 
     Learning.
       Norton, who lives in Nevada but travels to Vermont 
     frequently, said there are pockets across the country that 
     have ``the same vibe'' as Vermont and have many groups 
     working across the globe. He mentioned the San Francisco 
     area; parts of Seattle; Flagstaff, Ariz.; Boulder, Colo.; and 
     Asheville, N.C. In Vermont, it's statewide.
       ``People choose to either stay or move to Vermont for those 
     small-town community values,'' he said.
       Colson fits the profile. She said she got her first taste 
     of Africa through a program offered by her college and later 
     spent 25 years in Africa running safaris. In the mid-2000s 
     she branched out and started working on a program that helps 
     women start tiny income-generating businesses in areas where 
     opportunities are otherwise unavailable. Now her program, the 
     BOMA Project, has a staff of four.
       A native of western New York, she and her husband moved 
     back to the U.S. to raise their children in a small town 
     similar to where she grew up.
       Colson now spends about three months a year in Kenya where 
     she travels with an armed bodyguard.
       ``To be able to be in that place and then come home to 
     Vermont . . . all of a sudden you are in one of the safest 
     places on the planet,'' Colson said.
       Many of the organizations are in Vermont's larger 
     communities, but others are on back roads. Hathaway helped 
     found Clear Path International in the converted garage 
     outside his Dorset home in 2000, where he still works as its 
     communications director. The organization's main office has 
     since moved to Bainbridge Island, Wash.
       Rutland-based Pure Water for the World, which helps provide 
     clean water to communities in Honduras and Haiti, employs 
     three people in Vermont and about 25 overseas. It has a 
     budget this year of $1.2 million, much of which comes from 
     individual donations, said the group's executive director, 
     Carolyn Crowley Meub.
       ``I know individuals who have a small NGO they run from 
     their living room and are doing all kinds of interesting work 
     from these seemingly small, sleepy towns that are incredibly 
     connected to the world,'' said Norton.

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