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Sister Cities Program Brings Young Russians to See U.S. Elections

By Leah Dow

In early November a group of young leaders from Chekhov, Russia, a city 90 miles south of Moscow, arrived in New York to observe the 2008 U.S. election process and learn about city government.

The group is being hosted by Saratoga Springs, New York, a "sister city" to Chekhov, and is sponsored by the Open World Leadership Center, a U.S. congressionally funded group that seeks to expose young civic and political leaders from Eurasia to civic and social life in the United States.

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Sister Cities International (SCI) has been instrumental in pairing U.S. and former Soviet Republic cities to encourage communication and promote a variety of mutual exchanges and services.

Whether it is connecting large cities like Chicago with Kyiv, Ukraine, or small cities like Appleton, Wisconsin, with Kurgan in the Russian Urals, the nonprofit citizen-diplomacy organization has sought, for the last 50 years, to create an international dialogue on community-based issues.

In addition to their election experience, the group from Chekhov will be gaining lessons on local government, learning about environmentally sustainable urban development, and visiting a wind farm in the state of Massachusetts.

SCI currently pairs 151 U.S. and Russian cities and 700 cities throughout the United States with 1,700 cities in other countries.

Chicago's relationship with Kyiv dates back to July 1991, when the two first became sister cities. According to SCI, as Ukraine struggled to "rebuild and structure its government and legal system," lawyers from Chicago visited Kyiv to attend seminars that were designed to engage citizens in a dialogue about developing a new Ukrainian legal system.

As the relationship between Kyiv and Chicago developed, so did the scope of topics that the two communities discussed. Economic development, health care and education are just a few areas that are now part of their regular dialogue. Kyiv doctors have traveled to the United States to tour Chicago hospitals and learn about the U.S. health care system, while artists and musicians from Chicago are helping to build up art programs in Kyiv.

Mutual understanding is at the center of an effort between the sister cities of Duluth, Minnesota, and Petrozavodsk, Russia. For the past 19 summers, the two cities have conducted a Russian language camp, alternating it between Duluth and Petrozavodsk.

The nearly 25-year-old Sister City program between Louisville, Kentucky, and Perm, Russia, has helped create many business opportunities for local companies as well as expanded education and cultural exchanges. Each year, graduate students from Perm come to study at the University of Louisville in the areas of chemistry, biology, business, physics and computer technology because of the Sister Cities relationship.

In collaboration with the Wheelchair Foundation, which raises disability awareness and delivers wheelchairs to needy people throughout the world, the Louisville Sister Cities program sent to Perm containers packed with 240 to 280 wheelchairs.

Appleton, Wisconsin, with a population of 70,000, and its larger Russian sister city of Kurgan wanted to raise community awareness of several sensitive social issues. In October 2008, the Appleton Sister Cities program partnered with the Open World Leadership Center to host an eight-day event in Appleton that focused on human trafficking and domestic violence.

The seminars provided strategies for supporting domestic violence victims and identifying cases of human trafficking. Participants engaged in simulation exercises that helped them understand domestic violence from a victim's perspective.

Julie Bahr, a coordinator for the Appleton conference, says that its Sister City relationship continues to grow through "person-to-person" exchange of e-mails and letters and frequent trips to Kurgan.

And when Tbilisi, Georgia, faced hardships from Georgia's August 2008 conflict with Russia, its sister city, Atlanta, Georgia, generated financial and other resources to help the country's vulnerable populations.

Sister Cities International was founded in 1956 by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower as a people-to-people diplomacy exchange "to motivate and empower private citizens, municipal officials and business leaders and awaken them to the advantages of being internationally engaged," according to the Sister Cities International Web site ( http://www.sister-cities.org/ ).

Source: U.S. Department of State