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This Channel
is for National Guard State Partnership
Programs.
Furthermore, as projects between counties
develop,
The
Humanitarian Network is available to
help implement each phase of a project and provide partnerships with service clubs, NGO's
faith-based organizations, suppliers, and
both
short-term and long-term funding programs.
As NGBIA
projects develop they will be posted on this
channel of The Network. The first
comprehensive program to be posted was the
Pennsylvania-Lithuania
Program. The second program to be posted is
this initial venture into the West
Virginia-Peru partnership program, which
will address a number of needs in
the country of Peru covering specific
specialized vehicle and equipment needs. When this
section of the website channel is complete,
you will be able to find joint projects in
your country of interest and either sign-up
to support the entire program or a specific
segment of the program.
Other key projects anticipated when we
implement an
overall comprehensive plan, cover
an aggressive agenda which will utilize
resources from service clubs, faith-based
groups, and other non-government entities.
Additionally, we will be calling upon the
ex-patriots living in America to help
support this important State-to-Country
program, in collaboration with the 12
Sister-Cities Chamber of Commerce
relationships. The NGBIA State Partnership
Program was developed to help foster lasting
relationships in underdeveloped countries by
providing economic and financial support
through the private sector. Projects
pertaining to the categories listed below
are prime areas of focus. We encourage
all to register to
participate in this exciting program.
Agricultural Projects
Orphanage Projects
Medical-Dental projects
Youth Development Projects
Programs for the Physically Challenged
Educational projects
CLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHY:
Peru is one of the larger South
American countries - some ten times the size
of England - covering an area of 1,285,000
square kilometres and with a population of
over 26 million. Around seventy percent of
its inhabitants live in cities, which are
mainly located along the coast and limited
almost exclusively to half a dozen thin but
relatively fertile river valleys running
into the Pacific.
Peru is unique in possessing such a
wide variety of ecosystems ranging from the
dryest hot desert in the Americas, to the
high Andean peaks (over 7600m above sea
level); from a two- thousand-kilometre-long
belt of cloud forest, rich in flora and
fauna, to a vast area of lowland Amazon
jungle, covering about half the country. The
three main zones of Peru are known as La
Costa (the coast), La Sierra (the mountains)
and La Selva (the jungle). Within a matter
of hours, you can leave the scorching desert
coastline with some of the Pacific Ocean's
best fishing, cross the world's highest
tropical mountain range - the Andes - and
plunge down into our planet's biggest
tropical rainforest.
The unusual
weather conditions in Peru are created
mainly by two major offshore ocean currents
- the cold Humbolt Current coming up from
Chile and the Antarctic, which meets the
warm, tropical El Niño current coming down
from the Pacific along the Ecuadorian coast.
The Humbolt is largely responsible for the
dry desert coastline of Peru and Northern
Chile, sending Pacific clouds up into the
Andes where they precipitate as rain.
Traditional Peruvian wisdom says that it
only really rains on the Peruvian coast
about once every twenty years or so, when
the El Niño current pushes further down the
coast, warming the seas and causing
disruptive rains in the desert. These rains
bring devastating floods to towns and
settlements poorly prepared for torrential
downpours and often inhabited by migrants
from the mountains. However, the rains also
bring the desert into bloom as all the wild
flower seeds, preserved by the drought
conditions, suddenly burst into life.
Over the last few years, the
Peruvian weather has been rather unsettled
and El Niño has been acting even more
unpredictably than usual, possibly as a
result of global warming. However, it still
rarely rains on the coast, although the Lima
region does experience substantial smog,
coastal fogs or mists and even drizzle,
particularly between the months of May and
November.
The climate in the Sierra and Selva
regions can be fairly clearly divided into a
wet season (Oct-April) and a dry season
(May-Sept). There is, of course, some rain
during
 the
dry season, but it is much heavier and much
more frequent in the wet season, when travel
becomes much harder: roads are often
impassable, flights are frequently cancelled
or delayed due to poor conditions, and
landslides affect trains and bus routes
alike. Trekking in the mountains and
canoeing on the Andean or jungle rivers are
also much less enjoyable during the wet
season than at other times of year. Equally
frustrating - especially if you've travelled
halfway across the world to be here - is the
fact that some of the stupendous views,
particularly those around Cusco and in the
Cordillera Blanca, are often obscured by
clouds at this time of year. If you want to
visit several different regions of Peru,
then your best bet is to travel round in the
middle of the dry season between June and
September.
West Virginia:
West Virginia's
nickname, the Mountain State, is well
deserved. Some of the most rugged land in
the country can be found in this, one of the
smaller states; only nine states are smaller
in total area. Most of the level land areas
found in West Virginia are flat strips that
lie along the major rivers. If you're
traveling in this state and you're not
traveling along a river, chances are you'll
either be going uphill or you'll be going
downhill.
West Virginia's state boundaries tend to
follow the lay of the land, winding between
mountains along riverbeds or along mountain
ridges. These wandering boundaries give West
Virginia a unique outline. In northern West
Virginia, there are two interesting land
extensions that seem to intrude upon
neighboring states. The land that extends
eastward between Maryland and Virginia is
referred to as the Eastern Panhandle. The
strip of land that extends north between
Ohio and Pennsylvania is referred to as the
Northern Panhandle.
The land areas of this
state are characterized by the Appalachian
Ridge and Valley Region and the Appalachian
Plateau.
Appalachian Ridge and
Valley Region: Part of the Appalachian
Mountain system, the Allegheny and Blue
Ridge Mountain Ranges run in a broad strip
from northeast West Virginia southwest
across the eastern 1/6 of the state. These
mountains are characterized by long parallel
ridges. Streams run through the valleys that
separate these ridges.
The forested mountains of the Appalachian
Ridge and Valley Region hide many caves and
underground streams. Along the western edge
of the mountains is the Allegheny Front, the
place where the more sharp, rugged mountains
of the east meet the more rolling terrain of
the Appalachian Plateau. Many of the peaks
in this area of West Virginia rise to over
4,000 feet above sea level. Spruce Knob, the
highest point in West Virginia, rises 4,863
feet above sea level in the Appalachian
Ridge and Valley Region.
Appalachian Plateau: West of the Appalachian
Ridge and Valley Region, the Appalachian
Plateau covers 5/6 of West Virginia. This
land area, also rugged, is marked by
flat-topped highlands and more rounded hills
as opposed to the more sharply defined
landscape to the east.
 The State Partnership
Program (SPP)
is a possible model for harnessing the power
of the American people as a force for
positive peacemaking. The SPP was developed
based on NATO’s joint contact team program,
which was used to help jumpstart the
Partnership for Peace program. In 1993 the
National Guard decided to partner U.S.
states who were interested in engaging
overseas with foreign partners who were
willing to work with the U.S. The SPP has
grown to over 62 partnerships as of February
2010, and are targeted to grow at the rate
of two countries per year.
Partner nations are
generally smaller, relatively weak states in
need of assistance in building their
capacity to stabilize their own security.
For example, the first SPP partners were
Maryland - Estonia and
Pennsylvania - Lithuania
and more recently, New Mexico and Costa
Rica and West Virginia and Peru. The National Guard as citizen-soldiers
pride themselves on their ability to foster
positive, long-term relationships at the
civilian-military and civilian-civilian
level. After all, National Guard soldiers
and airmen also hold ordinary civilian jobs
as police officers, businessmen, teachers,
etc.
One of the most
remarkable results of the SPP are stories
told of positive spin-off effects from
seemingly mundane military-military contacts
that result in connections made between
American and partner country churches,
schools, universities, and relationships
fostered between governors and partner
ministries, and even new business contacts.
The National Guard possesses the potential
to serve an important grassroots peacemaking
role regionally as well as between foreign
countries and the United States.
Budgetary constraints
have and will continue to be the biggest
obstacle for implementation of meaningful
civilian-military projects, however, working
in conjunction with The Humanitarian Network
and its strategic partnerships with NGO’s,
goods and services suppliers, faith-based
groups, and service organizations like
Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis and others, such
comprehensive programs as herewith listed
become much more realistic. The Network has
the ability to bring together the key
elements needed for successful projects
which always have commonalities:
The funding limitations
of civilian-military cooperative projects,
wherein funds cannot be co-mingled, severely
strangles project needs. The Network can
bring together factions who can “take-over”
from the military efforts once a program
reaches a specific point, which allows
projects continue long after military
budgets run out. This “hand-off” idea has
been used effectively in Dominican Republic
and in the South Pacific, where military
engineer built schools, infirmaries, and
homes for the aged, and the local service
clubs in country, working with funds raised
by “partner clubs” abroad, took over and
completed supplying the facilities with
equipment, supplies, teachers, and necessary
infrastructure to complete the mission. An
additional benefit to such a program
structure is that “ownership and
accountability of the program”, became the
key to the long-term survival of the
project.
The U.S. Security
Assistance Program therefore is comprised of
and can be concentrated on primarily of
Foreign Military Sales of U.S. defense
equipment, services, and training and the
management of the Foreign Military Financing
(FMF) and International Military Education
and Training (IMET) grant funding, which is
the expertise of ODC. Defense Cooperation in
Armaments (DCA) includes support for the
bilateral Acquisition and Cross-Servicing
Agreement, assistance to logistics and
technology cooperation programs, and support
to U.S. companies seeking to do business in
Lithuania.
Some of the key
military-to-military programs that the ODC
office administers are the Joint Contact
Team Program,
State Partnership Program
and defense environmental cooperation.
The Bilateral Affairs
Officer within the ODC manages these
programs
and coordinates with
the National Guard to execute
the State Partnership Program,
within the
framework of the Ambassador's Mission
Performance Plan and SOUTHCOM's support. ODC Focus then becomes
primarily:
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To
support Peru's military
transformation to an
expeditionary style force
fully prepared to deploy in
support of
operations or in the
Southern Hemisphere or around the world
should Peru so chose.
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To
assist Peru with the
Professional Development of
their Officer and NCO corps
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To
provide military procurement
advice and assistance
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To
promote the U.S. defense
industry and U.S. defense
business and investments in
Peru.
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To
facilitate cooperation in
the fields of military
training, education and
technology.
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