3/13/2006 - Old AFS Friend Back As President of Costa Rica
AFS congratulates an old friend of AFS Óscar Rafael de Jesús Arias Sánchez on winning his second term as Costa Rica President on February 5, 2006. He will be President as of May 8. In 1987 Dr. Arias was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the civil wars in Nicaragua and El Salvador. He was the President of Costa Rica between 1986 and 1990. In 1988 he established the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress with the monetary award from his Nobel Peace Prize. The Foundation promotes women’s rights and gender’s equality, participation in civil society in Central America and demilitarization and conflict resolution in the developing world.
Dr. Arias has been a supporter of the AFS for many years. He was featured in the 1993 World Congress video and recognized AFS’s contribution in the AFS Annual Report in 1993, “It is important to remember that one is not born a global citizen. One becomes a global citizen. AFS is working to stir this awakening in our youth. Intercultural experiences and knowledge are crucial to this transformation.”
Dr Arias was a guest speaker at the AFS Costa Rica 40th anniversary in 1995. He also addressed the AFS Intercultural Programs World Congress in San José, Costa Rica in September of 1999. At the Congress the Oscar Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress honored the founders of AFS for their vision in 1947 in starting the intercultural organization that is AFS today. Five AFS WWII ambulance drivers—Walter Brethauer, C. B. Squire, Peter Minnock-Stewart, Norman Shethar and Ed Masback—accepted the award on behalf of AFS WWII volunteers.
Dr. Arias noted that following the end of World War II the AFS drivers committed themselves to the cause of international understanding and lauded AFS’s work, “I commend you for the noble work that you have done over the past half-century. You have instilled the values of tolerance, understanding, and mutual respect in the hundreds of thousands of people who have been involved in your exchanges, thereby contributing to the formation of a more peaceful, more compassionate world.”
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