Archive for May, 2010

Where do library books go when they are no longer needed? If that book was in the IBIC, Thunderbird’s International Business Information Centre, there is a pretty good chance that it it will get a new lease on life somewhere else in the world. T-bird sends our discarded books to an operation called Better World Books where they are sold online to fund distribution of books to schools, community centers and universities in need. Some books that cannot be sold are donated directly to Books for Africa and subsequently go to Africa.  The IBIC has gotten rid of thousands of books in the last few years as we transition to a more paperless operation with more electronic resources.

So where do all of these books from Glendale end up? In T-bird style, even our library is truly global. The following gallery was emailed to us from our friends at Better World Books who used funding from the sale of our books to send a 40-foot-long shipping container full of books to Monrovia, Liberia. These educational resources were then distributed across Liberia by Visions In Action, a development organization.

This partnership embraces many of Thunderbird’s core values: doing good (books go to people in need), sustainability (not dumping used books in a land fill) and entrepreneurship (we earn a small profit).

Want to learn more about the International Business Information Centre? Visit them on Facebook.

By Tamara Myatt, Senior Program Manager

10,000 Women Program, Kabul, Afghanistan

On May 6, 2010, fifty women graduated from the Goldman Sachs’ 10,000 Women project in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The graduation celebrated the end of a second successful year for the 10,000 Women training program in Afghanistan, and the continued success of the partnership between Thunderbird and the American University in Kabul.  In total, 104 Afghan woman entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs have been trained in the program since 2008, which is funded by Goldman Sachs, and utilizes teaching capacity at the AUAF and a curriculum designed by top faculty at Thunderbird.
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This Mother’s Day, honor an important woman in your life by fulfilling another woman’s dream for a thriving Afghanistan.

Thunderbird will welcome twenty select Afghan women entrepreneurs to campus this October as Project Artemis Fellows. These women will participate in a unique business-skills training program that aims to build the entrepreneurial skills of promising Afghan businesswomen.

Many of our Project Artemis fellows have had a number of successes. Rangina is one of them. She’s the owner of Kandahar Treasure, an embroidery company with more than 400 employees. Her business exports products worldwide and does all of this from a patriarchal, war-torn environment where women still have no legal protection.

If you would like to donate to the Project Artemis Campaign in honor of your mother, grandmother, sister, aunt or friend, Thunderbird will send a card to her on your behalf that recognizes your gift and tells the story of Project Artemis.   Make your gift today.