Annual Report 2004

Late last spring, we showed the Iranian film Son of Maryam at a gathering at Kendal at Hanover, and incorporated ourselves in Vermont. (We expect to receive our 501 (c) 3 not-for- profit status this spring.)

More importantly, four members of our group visited Iran last October, as the first step in building an Iran-US "Bridge." We saw not only the principal tourist sights in Tehran, Shiraz, Esfahan and Yazd, but made a number of personal contacts there that we have since been following up. Within a week of our return, we reported on our trip to our supporters. We then presented to a large group in Kendal, to the Norwich Lions Club, the Howe Library, Harvest Hill, the International Women's Club of Hanover, the First Congregational Church in Lebanon and a missions meeting of churches in Burlington. Note especially that this Iran trip was self-funded by the participants, leaving Building Bridges funds free for future projects and events.

Those on the Iran trip were: "Bridges" President Mary Huessy, Associate Pastor of the Norwich Vermont United Church of Christ; Bridges Vice President Charles Buell of Plainfield, New Hampshire; Adrianne Carr, Associate Pastor of the Burlington Vermont United Church Of Christ (and Bridges board member); and  Richard Broussard of Wilder, Vermont.

Right after our trip to Iran, Adrianne Carr visited the Kingdom of Jordan, and found some interesting comparisons between Shia Iran and Sunni Jordan, and their differing political systems. We hope that she will talk to our group about this experience.

Given the visa issues in both the U.S. and Iran, which will delay bringing an Iranian group to the U.S., we have used e-mail extensively to begin communications with our contacts, and will use that medium in the future. Since the trip, we have heard about Iranian Non-Governmental Organizations in a talk by Pedram Khorownjead, an Iranian student who worked with Gene Garthwaite of the Dartmouth History Department, in the winter.  Pedram has formed an NGO of his own to get computers to students living in the tribal areas of Iran.
 
Charles Buell was invited to talk to George Demko's Dartmouth MALS class "Spatial Diffusion of Democracy" on the impact of the February 20 parliamentary elections on Iran and its neighbors.

We are currently negotiating for speakers to come later this spring and summer. And we are planning to show some more Iranian films, separately.

We have been using our contacts to push forward our people-to-people programs. We are in the process of creating a dialogue, via e-mail correspondence, between Sunapee NH High School and Iranian students, in cooperation with the New Hampshire World Affairs Council. We hope that this can be expanded to other schools in New Hampshire and Vermont.

Our most ambitious plan is to organize another visit to the Middle East, probably a second trip to Iran.  We are hoping to have this trip in the spring of 2005 and will individualize it for our citizen dialogue interests, with tourist attractions secondary.

Finally, we’ve begun expanding the resources at our Web site: www.BuildingBridgesMEUS.org.

We’re adding more photographs of our October 2003 Iran trip and making links to interesting Web sites in Iran. Especially gratifying has been to hear from friends in Iran who visit our site for information about plans and activities.