Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
February 6, 2002
Georgetown offers aid, recognition to Afghan leader Karzai
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Georgetown University presented Afghan leader Harmid Karzai with its President's Medal and announced an assortment of programs to help the people of Afghanistan rebuild their country.
Karzai, who is serving as interim leader of Afghanistan, spoke at the Jesuit-run university Jan. 27 to a gymnasium filled with thousands of Georgetown students and faculty and local Afghan-Americans. He met with President Bush the next day and was to attend the Jan. 29 State of the Union address as Bush's guest.
Karzai urged Afghans in the Georgetown audience to return to Afghanistan, where their skills can help with reconstruction. He drew appreciative laughter when he encouraged young Afghan-Americans to "study hard, work hard, make money and bring it to Afghanistan."
Georgetown president John J. DeGoia presented Karzai with the President's Medal, created by the university in 1968 to recognize individuals for meritorious service. Recent recipients include South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
DeGoia also announced several programs that may help Afghanistan rebuild.
The university's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service will award fellowships to officials of the Afghan government, enabling them to take courses in government, leadership, security studies and economics.
Existing programs such as the Pedro Arrupe Scholarship for Peace and the Vital Voices Global Leadership Institute also are available to help people from other countries, DeGoia said.
The Arrupe scholarships allow students with limited income from troubled areas of the world to attend Georgetown. The leadership institute has prepared leadership and democracy-building training for Afghan women and hopes to begin offering the courses soon for up to 150 women a year.
The university's law center and its schools of business, nursing and medicine also are offering assistance to Afghanistan, according to DeGoia.
Karzai met with the Georgetown audience for more than an hour, including 30 minutes of answering questions.
In a joint statement after their White House meeting Jan. 28, Bush and Karzai vowed never to let another nation be overtaken by a group like the Taliban.
"The United States and Afghanistan stand united in our determination that Afghanistan will never again become a training ground for global terror," their statement said. "We are equally determined that Afghanistan's tragic experience — where terrorists were allowed to hold an entire nation hostage — will not be repeated or replicated anywhere in the world."
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