As we bid farewell to women’s history month, we reflect on a hard month behind us. The anniversary of the pandemic declaration, the opening of the trial and the wounds of the killing of George Floyd, the continuing rise of Asian hate in this country, with a horrible shooting spree targeting Asian American women in Atlanta, and so much more to be concerned about in our world. At the end of this update, you will find a note about the current situation in Myanmar, which especially impacts the local Burmese community, and concerns all of us in West Michigan.

Last year on this day, we were looking forward to one extra day of February. And we were days away from the pandemic declaration. This year, as we enter March 2021, we are one year into this most unusual time. February 2021 saw the first Presidential visit to Kalamazoo of the Biden Administration, and for us, has included welcoming visitors from 29 countries (virtually); engaging exchanges with staff from Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency (KRESA) and Kalamazoo Valley Community College (KVCC), as well as an inspiring dialogue between young European leaders and grassroots changemakers from Uplift Kalamazoo.

In this moment of tremendous upheaval in the United States of America, we, Colleagues International, would like to echo an element of the statement we released upon the killing of George Floyd this past May. This deeply divided country, with a very particular history, has a tremendous amount of work to do

Last Thursday, December 17th, we hosted a zoom reunion of Women Entrepreneurs from Russia, who came to Kalamazoo through Open World in early March of this year. While we had 3 groups with us that week of the pandemic declaration, theirs was the last to leave, on Friday, March 13th.

On November 13th my phone did what many of our phones do – it showed off its ‘artificial intelligence’, sharing photos from ‘on this day’ in prior years. It started with a photo from two years ago. Laurence Bézy, a Program Officer at our Washington DC-based partner World Learning had come to Kalamazoo on a professional exchange.

We hope that you are enjoying the peak Autumn color that we are experiencing in and around Kalamazoo this week. With all of the challenges and crises of 2020, majestic moments of nature’s seasonal transformations provide some inspiration and comfort.

As we grapple with the dual upheaval of COVID-19 and the killing of George Floyd, both laying bare the deep structural and institutional inequities in this country, we, Colleagues International, stand in solidarity with the Black community and communities of color in our city of Kalamazoo, throughout the United States, and around the globe.