el djazair alumni newsletter - august 2011

8/4/2019 El Djazair Alumni Newsletter - August 2011

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where we had to start our coursesin the University of Nevada, Reno. I

have always seen American universi-ties, but only in T.V. So having thechance to visit an American Univer-

sity and take classes there was justunbelievable. The Journalism classes

that we took with Mr. Todd Felts

really helped me to develop ourlistening skills and taught us various

things about Medias.

Besides, spending the weekend inSan Francisco was just enormous,

weve finally discovered the city wewere dreaming about. I was sohappy to be with the entire group,

enjoying the city.

Finally, the last seven days we spentin Tahoe were full of emotionsbecause it was the end of the pro-

gram, we were all enjoying eachsecond, each minute, each momentwith the American participants, we

got much closer and spent memora-

ble moments.

I think that the AYLP has not only

built and fortified my leadership

skills, but it has also made me un-derstand that fabulous people still

exist in this world, and thanks to

them, thanks to their support, I feel

that I gained enough life experience

to face all challenges that my future

holds for me.

Anis Akli Mehnaoui

YLP 2011

Since I was young, one of my pre-

cious dreams has always been to goto visit the United States. I havealways wanted to discover and live

the culture of the new country andat the same time I had anotherdreamto become a leader in my

country. The U.S Department ofState heard my voice and createdthe Youth Leadership Program for

me and for all those who have had

the same dream.

The week we spent in Sidi Fredj

opened my eyes about what we

could contribute to our communitybecause we had to visit many differ-ent NGOs and learn more aboutthem. I was surprised to see that

there are so many different organi-zations that exist close to myneighborhood. Thanks to the first

part of YLP, I created contact withdifferent people working in thoseorganizations, and now I am deter-

mined to join an organization thatprevents AIDS. Also, the first weekwas a chance for me to meet Ca-

rina, Justin and the other youthleaders that now have become likemy brothers and sisters. We spent

the first 4 days in Washington D.C.It was my favorite city. We visited

different museums, and we had thechance to see the white house andtake a picture close to it. But the

most interesting visit we had was inthe State Department where we

were fortunate enough to meet the

Ambassador of the United States inAlgiers who shared with us some of

his future projects in strengtheningthe relations between The United

States and Algeria that Ive found

inspiring.

After that, we finally flew to Thebiggest little city in the world,

Reno, where the biggest part of theprogram was waiting for us. Beforewe went to Reno, we stayed in

Virginia City, a little town next toReno. Our moments in Virginia Citywere purely unforgettable. We first

met our counselors and people whowork in the staff of Northern Ne-

vada International Center (NNIC). I

found them incredibly interestingbecause each one of them had his orher own personality, and they madethe charm of the program. Then,

the first day in Virginia City was theday when we met the 10 Americanparticipants. I only wish I could go

back to that day, the contact wasvery easy with them and theyseemed all interested about us and

our culture. There was even a girlwho told me that she thought wewere all blacks and that she will

have to struggle in order for her tobe understood by us. So I think thatit was also a great opportunity for

us to show the American partici-

pants who the Algerians are. Thenext 6 days were all exciting notonly because we had to study civic

engagement in classes and do a lotof fun activities and communityservices but also because we got to

all know each other and being sur-rounded by such wonderful people

was just amazing!

Following the six days we spent in

Virginia City, we went back to Reno

The YLP Experience

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

August 2011Volume 2, Issue 19

El-Djazair Alumni Newsletter

Inside this issue:

The YLP Experience 1

W2W 2011 2

FLTA Meeting withAmbassador

2

ACCESS Graduation 3

Tribute 4

Interfaith Dialogue 4

Visiting the White House

The YLP 2011

Before departure


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For the second year in a row,the U.S. Embassy in Algierssent a group of young girls to

Lesley University in Boston,MA, to take part in theWomenn2Women conference2011 in its 6th edition. Theconference took place from

July 26 to August 3 and hadyoung representatives from 35countries, ages 15 to 19.

Following the success of lastyears conference and the im-pact it had on the Algerianparticipants (see El DjazairAlumni NewsletterAugust

2010), the Public Affairs Officein Algeria selected thirteendelegates to represent Algeriaduring this conference, threemore than last year.

Good habits die hard

Before the delegations depar-ture, and as the establishedhabit, all members and theirparentswere invited to a re-ception hosted by the newPublic Affair Officer, TashawnaBethea and with, as a special

guest, the New U.S. Ambassa-dor in Algeria, Henry Ensher,who spoke to the young dele-gates about the importance ofempowering women and the

importance of such an event,Bethea, the PAO, also sent aclear message to the Algerian

representatives, praising theirabilities and their role as youngambassadors for Algeria.

One very special moment dur-ing this event was the youngdelegates speeches on theirexpectations fromWomen2Women program andthe role they are aiming to playin their future as women in theAlgerian society. The delegateshad also the opportunity tohear from Yousra Bettioui,

2010 W2W Alumna, on herexperience and how attendingW2W changed her view onmany her role as a woman.

The thirteen delegates leftAlgeria the next day, withheads full ideas, hopes and one

sole objective, to be the bestrepresentatives of Algerianwomen.

A.B

understanding between Ameri-

can and other countries. The

FLTAs will go to the U.S. for

an academic year; in turn, they

will improve their own profes-

sional English language teaching

skills to return to enhance

English language learning and

instruction at their various

institutions in Algeria. The

students recently returned

from a week-long orientation

program in Istanbul, Turkey

where they learned their roles

Ambassador Henry Ensher

gave welcome remarks to Ful-

bright Language Teaching Assis-

tant during their pre-departure

briefing held on July 26. The

six participants will travel to

the U.S. to various American

colleges and universities to

assist in teaching Arabic at

select institutions. The FLTA

program is part of a suite of

Fulbright programs that focus

on educational exchange op-

portunities to increase mutual

and responsibilities for the

program. Cultural Affairs Spe-

cialist and Fulbright Program

Coordinator, Nadia Ouhenia,

attended the program in Istan-

bul and led the pre-departure

briefing. PAO, Tashawna S.

Bethea, also attended the ses-

sion.

W2W 2011: Empowering Women

FLTA Meeting with Ambassador Ensher

Page 2 El-Djazair Alumni Newsletter

Ambassador H. Ensher andPAO, T. Bethea posing with

FLTAs.

Ambassador Ensher addresses the W2Wdelegation.

W2W 2011 Algerian

delegates.

PAO, Bethea discussingwith delegates.


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The month of July was the begin-ning of the Access graduation

ceremony in different schools,starting from Batna and Constan-

tine.On July 13th, the Assistant Cul-

tural Affairs Officer (ACAO),

Regina Cocco headed to El BadrSchool in Batna to share local

students special moment fortheir completion of the Micros

Scholarship Access Program

2009/2011.Because they wanted to make it

their very special day, the certifi-cates ceremony took place at the

town theatre In a way to have alarger audience with parents and

local Access alumni.

The ceremony started with aspeech by Regina Cocco, who

complemented the students,

teachers and all the staff from ElBadr school for the efforts they

have put during the two-year

Access training; the ACAOpointed out, during her speech,

the importance of such a pro-gram for the American Govern-

ment. She congratulated the

students on their graduation dayand for their invaluable success.

Later on, the activities started bya reading of verses of the Quran

by a student who translatedthem to the audience into Eng-

lish, this was followed by the

American and Algerian anthems.One of the greatest tradition

during any of the Access ceremo-nies but is also their pride, is

students presentations.The first presentation was a

comparison between Algeriaand the US with their differentsides (religious, social, cultural,

and geographical etc). Afterthat Student Sofiene presented a

report about Martin LutherKing followed by a video calledNorth and South, showing

the contrast about the AlgeriangeographyThe students presented two

other videos about Deaf Peo-ple, and Let me tell you.

The first one was about people

who are deaf at birth or becamedeaf at infancy before acquiring

mastery of a spoken language,and the second one is about

colonialism and how our Algerian

Martyrs fought bravely to get our

independence.

The last show was named Thesix candles. Every candle hold

by a student symbolizes a moralvalue (love, happiness, friendship,

peace, faith, hopeetc) but alldie as people are not giving it

importance until hope comes atlast to lighten the other candles.

Their last message was no one

can live without hope.

A.B

Next, was a poem prepared by agroup of students calledGandhi inspired to the stu-dents from the life of the Indian

leader.Activities that reflect the essenceof the Access program i.e. inspir-

ing creativity and artistic expres-sion along with academic learn-

ing.

The ceremony ended with Regina

Coccos speech in which theACAO said that the end of Ac-

cess Program is the beginning ofother opportunities, insisting on

their role a alumni, she thenthanked them for the excellent

performance they made and howhappy she was for the excellent

level the students have shownthrough the different activities.

At the end of the ceremony,

Another ceremony took place onthe same day, July 13, Constan-

tine.The ACAO, Regina Cocco, at-

tended the Access ceremony at

the Universal Language Center(ULC) in Constantine to share

the students celebration of their

completion of the Access Pro-gram 2009/2011. The event took

place at a local theater, and over60 people were present: Access

Alumni, New Access students,teachers, relatives, friend, and

staff, Was also present at theceremony, Elizabeth Cole, the

English Language Fellow at theUniversity of Constantine.

The show started by short movie

showing students activities, then

two plays were performed, thefirst one was called the FunnyTeacher and The second onewas called The Little Boy.

Regina Cocco handed the certifi-cates and took pictures with the

students and their teachers.

A.B

ACCESS Graduation: Batna

ACCESS Graduation: Constantine

The ACAO

pointed out

the

importance

of the Access

program for

the American

Government.

Page 3Volume 2, Issue 19

Access students from ElBadr School Batna.

Students performing ontheir graduation stage.

Access students from ULCSchool Constantine.

Access Students reading

poetry

One student offering apainting made duringthe ceremony to

ACAO, R. Cocco

The ACAO, R. Cocco handingthe Access certificates to stu-


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Email:[email protected]

Public Diplomacy,U.S. Embassy Algiers,Algeria

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

During the last two years andthrough this association, Bensol-

tane completed many actions and

worked hard to fight diabetes andteach others about this disease.In a year of existence, from Janu-

ary 2010, Al Ajdad organized 12events directed to children, par-ents, teachers and school headmas-

ters. Salim Mohamed Benmoumenrecalls Ahmed As the most activeperson he ever met, his disabilitiesnever stopped from reaching his goals,

creating projects, making up new

ideas, although he had no resourcesexcept a small pension. In January

2011, Ahmed Bensoltane Mohamedattended the NGO ManagementProgram, in the USA and proudly

shared this experience in our Mayissue, and wrote to describe it: Ilearned a lot about the differences

and similarities between both theAlgerian and American cultures. I alsodiscovered peoples friendliness and

helpfulness; from the program, Idiscovered different and more efficientways to increase my associations

effectiveness.

Ahmed Bensoltane Mohamed,

president and founder of Al Ajdad,

IVLP Alumni died of a heart attack

on July 28, 2011 at the age of 31,

the last conference he gave was in

In our May edition of El DjazairAlumni Newsletter, we proudly

featured Ahmed Bensoltane Mo-

hamed, the Chairman and founderof Al Ajdad, an NGO that helps

children suffering of diabetes. Ah-med shared his experience in theUS for what it is now, and his last

trip outside Algeria, as today, Ah-med Bensoltane Mohamed has left

us.Ahmeds life was all devoted toothers, orphaned at an early age,

he lived in hospital from the age of

11, not because he had diabetesbut because he had nowhere to go;

during the 18 years he lived inthere, Ahmed started experiencingthe sufferance of others so to

forget his own, diving in communityservice to see others smiling and sohe could smile back to life; being

amputated in his 20s did not stophim from acting for the others. Heworked in fundraising, clothes

collection and helping those inneed because there was no causehe did not adopt. In 2008, Bensol-tane lost sight because of a surgery,

and just two years later he started

his Association, Al Ajdad, As he feltthe need to structure his action and to

help more people Salim MohamedBenmoumen, co-founder and IVLPAlumni said.

the Sheraton, Algiers, few days

before his death, the subject was

Diabetes and Ramadhan.

A.B

Ahmed Bensoltane Mohamed1980-2011

El Djazair Alumni Newsletter

Ahmed Bensoltane Mohamed

Interfaith Dialogue

The Interfaith Dialogue Essay Contest is an invitation for young Algerians to write an article on thesubject of the Dialogue between Religions. This is the third edition of this competition organized by

the U.S. Embassy in Algeria.The contest is open to youth aged 15 to 18 and articles can be in any of the three languages (Arabic,French or English), they also have to be less than 600 words, when sending the article, participants

must clearly mention their names, contact information (address, email and phone number).To be taken into consideration, articles have to be sent either:

By fax to 021 607 335 with the mention Interfaith Dialogue Essay Contest

By mail to: 05 Chemin Cheikh Bachir El Ibrahimi El BiarAlger - Section des Affaires Pu-

bliques -Concours dcriture sur le Dialogue des Religions By Email to [email protected] with the mention Interfaith Dialogue Essay Con-

testThe jury is made up of religious personalities and members of the press, who will have to select thethree best articles. The winning articles will be published in the press and the winners will be rewarded

during a ceremony at the U.S. Embassy,

Deadline for participation is September 30, 2011.

el djazair alumni newsletter - august 2011

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