The Syracuse-based Near East Foundation is celebrating its centennial year of operation — an anniversary that encapsulates 100 years of community-building in the Middle East and North Africa.

The Near East Foundation is a non-governmental organization that works overseas with local partners to help build communities in the MENA region that are more sustainable, prosperous and inclusive. The organization does this through the use of education, governance and economic development initiatives, according to its website.

The organization, whose headquarters are located at 230 Euclid Ave., started as a humanitarian organization and became a developmental NGO that has served more than 40 countries in its 100-year history, said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, a professor of political science at Syracuse University who is on the board of directors of NEF.

NEF was founded in 1915 in response to an appeal by U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau, who raised alarms about the mass extermination of Armenian people in Turkey, according to text from a museum exhibition by NEF.

Morgenthau’s appeal was sent to President Woodrow Wilson, who mobilized business people, philanthropists and religious and civic leaders in New York City to organize relief funds. The group met its goal of raising $100,000 in two days, according to the text.

The organization was initially called the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, according to an exhibit by NEF. In 1919, the organization was incorporated by a congressional charter and renamed the Near East Relief, according to the text. The group pioneered the idea that all Americans despite age, income or background could help by donating their time and skills.

In 1930, the organization was renamed to the Near East Foundation in an effort to move away from relief work and work toward a more sustained, long-term development-oriented involvement in the region, according to the NEF website.

NEF President Charles Benjamin said the organization is important from a historical perspective in that it was the first great movement in the U.S. to engage in a humanitarian crisis overseas.

“It was the birth of what we call citizen philanthropy, which is the idea that average people could affect the well-being of people who are far away,” said Benjamin, who has been working with NEF since 1993.

NEF has a decentralized power structure which allows for the development of local professionals and leaders, according to its website, which makes it so that the organization is more responsive to the needs of the locals in these foreign countries. The foundation is able to tailor initiatives to local conditions as well as evolve with the changing nature of community needs and challenges, according to its website.

The foundation has four core programs: Peacebuilding through Economic Cooperation and Development, Women’s Microenterprise Development, Agriculture and Natural Resource Management and Youth Civic Engagement, according to its website.

Boroujerdi said the philosophy of NEF is to try to teach certain skills so the people they are reaching out to can sustain themselves, rather than being a simple humanitarian organization that donates money to programs.

NEF is the first example of an NGO affiliating with a major university, Boroujerdi said. It moved to Syracuse in 2010 from New York City, he added, and since then has worked closely with faculty and students to design, implement and support its projects overseas.

“We have had faculty members advising us as well as going overseas helping with projects in West Bank in Israel, Darfur and Mali,” Benjamin said. “They have enriched our work to a really significant degree.”

The organization has also worked with SU students and Benjamin said the students bring a degree of passion and talent that has a great impact on the projects.

Of the 13 staff members that currently work at NEF, three have previously been student interns from SU, Benjamin said. Among the three student interns is the current program officer, Meghan Boesch, who interned during the 2011-12 academic year.

Boesch said those in the office are extremely committed to the work that they do, but are also somewhat separated from their work.

“It really hits home when we get to visit the field and makes us feel very grateful to be a part of the solution,” Boesch said.

Published on October 28, 2015 at 10:10 pm

Contact Stacy: sfern100@syr.edu | @StacyFernandezB