A wealth of foreign influence in Denver
What do we really know about America’s international influence under the next president we elect? Not a whole lot.
But right here in Denver, there are more than 200 organizations that exert international influence, more than in any other city in America, and they will continue to no matter who wins the White House. Most are nonprofits, and most are housed under a single roof, in the Posner Center for International Development.
Posner’s slogan is “Solutions to global poverty.” That might mean a poverty of money, a poverty of education, a poverty of medical care or energy or infrastructure or technology. Whichever it is, the organizations at the Posner Center are confronting some of the most challenging issues on Earth.
Like International Development Enterprises, which teaches farmers on three different continents to acquire simple technology that improves their yields. And Project Cure, which solicits medical supplies and equipment and sends it to hospitals in underdeveloped countries. And Children’s Future, which helps kids in Cambodia with everything from health care to schooling to food.
Then, there’s AfricAid. It educates girls. It was founded by a 16-year-old Coloradan who went with her family on safari to Tanzania and saw girls her own age facing obstacles she simply didn’t face. She came home and started raising money for classrooms and books. That was 15 years ago. The mission grew to giving girls leadership development skills. And from there, to business skills. This year, AfricAid has more than 900 girls in 21 schools.
Beyond academics, they learn lessons no one otherwise would have taught them. Like not to marry so early, and not to have children so young. They get the grit to break through Africa’s glass ceiling. More than 90 percent of AfricAid’s girls nowadays enroll in universities. That’s pretty good in a place where 19 out of 20 girls don’t finish high school.
What Posner’s about is synergy, or what its executive director calls “cross-pollination.” Within its four walls is a wealth of international experience. Not only with projects but with technology, logistics, fundraising. All anyone has to do to combine resources is get up and walk across the hall. Five different non-profits, for example, recently worked together to win a grant from Western Union that fosters entrepreneurship in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
Our next president will do whatever she, or he, is going to do to put America’s stamp on the world. Here in Denver, they’re already doing it.