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Collaborated with several Portland State University student organizations such as the Association of African Students, Black Cultural Affairs Board, ASPSU (student government), Students for Unity, and The Rearguard as well as local communities and unions in our Books Not Bombs project, to collect and ship books to schools in Somaliland, Africa. We successfully shipped nearly 20,000 books in December 2001 to Somaliland.

Organized a successful fundraiser for our Books Not Bombs project with the Association of African Students at PSU. We presented “Books Not Bombs: Voices of Reason against the War,” which featured speakers from the African American community, such as OB Hill of Reflections Book Store, and other local activists who spoke out against the war on Afghanistan.

Helped to organize the 22nd Annual African Cultural Event at PSU

Participated in the Black History Symposium at Portland State University. One of our members presented a talk entitled, “The Empire Strikes Back: the US War on Terrorism.”

Hosted and/or organized several poetry readings and cultural events, including the PDX Salmon Slam at the NW Children’s Theatre, featuring contemporary poets speaking out against racism, war and social injustice

Presented “Word UP!” featuring African American women authors, poets and hip hop artists Rochell Hart and Turiya Autry

Organized a lecture and fundraiser for Edna Adan Ismail, founder and director of a maternity hospital in Somaliland, at Portland State University. We also collaborated with the Multi-Cultural committee at the Veterans Hospital in Portland to feature her as a keynote speaker for one of their events, “Teaching and Healing in Somaliland” in 2002. The Veterans Hospital held a medical textbook drive for EWOB and donated some medical supplies.

Presented “Rock Against Racism” at the PCC Cascade campus, where we provided tabling spaces for several progressive groups including Laughing Horse Bookstore, PCUN, SEIU local 49, IWW, NAACP, In Other Words bookstore, CFA, Blackthorne Collective, APLAN, Jews for Global Justice, the Portland Alliance, and PCC Student Services to reach out to the African American community and other people of color in northeast Portland.

Collaborated with the International Center for Traditional Childbirthing (ICTC) to organize and sponsor a national Black Midwifery and Healing Conference at PSU. We enlisted the support of the Women’s Studies Department at Portland State University to secure conference space and online registration. We also sponsored Edna Adan Ismail as one of the two keynote speakers for the conference. We did fundraising to pay for her travel and lodging expenses, and an honorarium. We are also fundraising for a scholarship for Edna’s head nurse and instructor for an internship at Oregon Health & Science University on medical procedures and technological innovations.

“Lynne Stewart vs John Aschroft Room” April 18th, 2003-Friday 7:30 PM, Portland State University, Smith Memorial Student Union, 1825 SW Broadway: 101 Parkway North Room. Lynne Stewart is a well-known human rights attorney, who has defended the poor and political prisoners, including those with “unpopular causes.” She was arrested and indicted last year for aiding terrorists (she was the attorney for Sheikh Abdel Rahman) and is facing 40 years in prison. The fact that Attorney General John Ashcroft personally traveled to New York to announce her arrest on the same day at a press conference led many to believe that she was targeted to silence her political beliefs and her outspoken defense of political people. Her case is of vital importance to all of us because it addresses the attacks on our constitutional rights by the Bush/Ashcroft Administration in order to silence dissent to its right-wing agenda and the “war on terrorism.” With MRG’s support, Education WithOut Borders brought Lynne Stewart to Portland to speak about the implications that her case has on our constitutional rights to free speech and dissent, and the right to counsel, which have been undermined by the Patriot Act. The serious consequences that her case has for the growing peace movement against the war on Iraq and human rights issues will be of great interest to the Arab/Moslem communities, peace and civil rights activists, legal scholars and anyone interested in human rights.

“Education vs Oil in Ecuador’s Amazon Rain Forests” a fundraiser for EWOB/Ecuador held October 10, 2003 at the First Unitarian Church, 1011 SW 12th & Main, Portland, Oregon. EWOB in partnership with The Mamallacta Community brought in the indigenous Mariposa Elder, Shaman, Guide and Educator, Alias Mammallacta to explain our partnership in building a community based Eco-Tourism Education Project. Alias showed a video documentary “Flames in the Forest” which demonstrated the destruction of the forest and the pollution of the rivers by BP Gas and other oil interest and the ill affects this has on the indigenous populations and their way of living. EWOB has established a chapter in Ecuador with the intent of aiding the community to purchaser Rain Forest land to establish an Eco-Tourism School in an attempt to set aside and protect the forest from commercial interests and to educate the global community of the value of an eco-system as a laboratory for scientists and students. Marc Hinz is our EWOB/Ecuador project director and spent the summer of 2003 to meet with the Mariposa community and develop the partnership.

December 18th, 2003 at Portland State University, Education WithOut Borders co-sponsored "A Celebration of Art" a benefit for the African American Visual Arts Scholarship. Website: HYPERLINK "http://www.aavas.com" www.aavas.com AAVAS was established by our member Isaka Shamsud-Din Associate Professor of Art, Minority Recruitment and Community Outreach Officer at Portland State University. Isaka established a community board to execute and found the first African American Visual Arts Scholarship to encourage and recruit African American youth to the arts for professional opportunities and cultural expression. Isaka invited EWOB to co-sponsor the event where we provided free printing of a postcard poster through our personal relationship with Ash Creek Printing and arranged a cable access interview, posted online press releases, solicited donations for auction and our members contributed art works to the AAVAS silent art auction.

EWOB has entered into a collaboration effort with Womb Dialectic to establish a curriculum for performance art through the use of Hip-Hop and Spoken Word Poetry for Public Education. We visualize a menu of options that schools can choose from, which includes assemblies, class visits and workshops. We plan to put our theory into action at the start of the New Year 2004 and are seeking funds to help us defer development costs.

We believe that our efforts have been beneficial to bringing diverse community groups to work together on common projects that promote social change. We have successfully brought together student groups, people of color, especially the African American community and African immigrants, with other mainly white progressive groups by involving them in projects that promote social change, such as the Books Not Bombs project, Rock against Racism concert, poetry readings and other cultural events, the Black Midwifery and Healing conference at PSU, and fundraising for medical supplies for a maternity teaching hospital and books for schools in Somaliland Africa.
To advance our goal to overcome the barriers of race and/or racism separating predominantly white progressive groups from the African American community groups, we sponsored African American speakers, such as bell hooks and Ramona Africa, to address the issues of racism and social justice to mixed audiences. We also helped to bring speakers like Edna Adan Ismail, from Somaliland, to address the issue of health care for African women and children, and Michael Parenti to address issues of global capitalism and the war on terrorism, to both African American as well as white communities.