At a ceremony on Thursday, November 17 at 11 a.m. in the Benjamin Franklin Room at the Department of State, eight people will receive the 2022 AAFSW Secretary of State Award for Outstanding Volunteerism Abroad (SOSA).
During the ceremony, the Associates of the American Foreign Service Worldwide (AAFSW) awards will be given out and Deputy Secretary of State Brian P. McKeon will talk about the winners’ great service. A video message of congratulations will come from Secretary Blinken.
The winners of this year’s awards are:
Justin Wimpey, Bureau of African Affairs (AF) (Antananarivo, Madagascar)
Since 97 percent of the people in Madagascar cook with charcoal, Eligible Family Member (EFM) Justin Wimpey looked for a better solution that was not only technologically possible but also very cheap, made locally, and accepted by the culture.
Using the traditional Malagasy pot as inspiration, he made a pressure cooker and gave it to a local metalworker and foundry for free. He also improved the way the pots were made and helped set up a business run by women to sell and ship the pots all over Madagascar.
The “Cocotte Minute Gasy” is becoming more and more popular because it cuts down on the use of charcoal, which slows down deforestation and saves mostly women from spending many hours a day in front of harmful charcoal fire fumes.
The Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP) employs Denis Rajic, Michele Rajic Tang, Vicki Daniel, and Ellin R. Lobb (Shanghai, China)
As a response to the PRC’s largest COVID-19 outbreak in March 2022, Shanghai put in place one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, making it hard for people to get food and other necessities.
Direct hire employees Denis Rajic and Vicki Daniel, along with Eligible Family Members Michele Rajic Tang and Ellin R. Lobb, worked tirelessly to make connections and set up wholesale food deliveries for U.S. direct-hire staff and their families, as well as local employees of Consulate General Shanghai.
Some of these people had not had food deliveries in weeks. The team is now helping other Missions set up their own systems for the supply chain.
Meredith Wiedemer is the head of the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs (EUR) (Chisinau, Moldova)
More than 590,000 Ukrainian refugees have crossed the border into Moldova. Eligible Family Member Meredith Wiedemer was part of the leadership team at a Donation Center that helped over 38,000 refugees get emergency supplies like food, hygiene items, and things for babies.
One month into the war, she realized that refugees would need long-term help, so she opened the Sunflower Center, which now gives Ukrainian women jobs, programs for children, and psychological and social support for mothers.
She has gotten more than $200,000 in donations from private people and made deals with international groups to help Sunflower.
Debra Stock, Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs (NEA) (Doha, Qatar)
Debra Stock’s first job abroad was in Doha, where she arrived around the same time as 58,000 Afghan refugees. Debra took charge of getting volunteers to help right away. For months, she spent her days and nights at the Al Udeid Air Base.
Her volunteers, who became known as “Doha Do-Gooders,” worked in the lines where refugees came in and gave them warm clothes, hygiene items, and other necessities, as well as things for children, like more than 300 soccer balls.
They held fundraisers for the refugees that brought the Embassy community together. They also built and furnished a school for the refugee children, where Debra also taught and acted as a mentor.
J. Carlos Valles is the head of the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs (WHA) (Port-au-Prince, Haiti)
J. Carlos Valles has spent more than 1,000 hours volunteering at the St. Luke’s Foundation Carpenter Training Center in Port-au-Prince. He works with young men who are at risk and teaches them how to use tools and work as a team.
Their workshop makes desks, chairs, beds, and coffins that are cheap enough for Haiti’s urban poor to be able to give their loved ones a proper burial. Carlos also works with the Embassy community to find and reuse shipping and packing materials that can be used to make coffins.
Carlos will leave behind a network of skilled carpenters who can make a good living and fill a very important need in the capital of Haiti.
SOSA awards are given to U.S. government employees, their families, and other household members at embassies and consulates who did outstanding volunteer work in their communities, mission, or host country, or who helped in an emergency in a way that was above and beyond.
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