MMA seeks hosts for visiting Pakistanis

The MMA is seeking communities to host 15 government professionals from Pakistan for a two-day, three-night visit in September.

Each community will be asked to host two or three guests. The guests will arrive in the community on the afternoon of Sept. 21 and will return to Boston on Sept. 24.

In the host communities, the participants will learn about local government by visiting municipal offices and meeting with local elected and appointed officials. The guests hope to have the opportunity to attend local board meetings so they can get a sense of local government and how democracy works at the local level. Previous guests have appreciated the opportunity to visit Americans in their homes or at cultural events.

During the visits, participants will reside in local hotels and spend each of the two days with a town or city department or at a relevant event.

The Pakistanis will be in the United States for a total of six weeks through the U.S.-Pakistan Professional Partnership Program for Public Administration, which is being conducted by the MMA and the Institute for Training and Development (www.itd-amherst.org), a nonprofit based in Amherst.

Through the three-year project, 75 Pakistani government professionals will meet and work with American counterparts in short-term programs. The first group of 15 participants spent six weeks in the United States this past spring.

In addition to building their professional capacities, program organizers hope the visitors will build professional and personal relationships with their American counterparts.

The other weeks of the fall program will feature an orientation to U.S. public administration, including lectures from practitioners and academics in Amherst and visits to local organizations and government offices.

The program includes individual and group reflection on the professional attachments and travel to Washington, D.C., for more site visits and a debriefing at the U.S. Department of State.

Hadley Town Administrator David Nixon, whose town hosted Pakistani visitors in the spring, said, “The entire experience of hosting our Pakistani guests turned into a great moment for the town.”

During the program, many enduring friendships developed between Massachusetts municipal officials and the Pakistani guests.

The Pakistani participants were recruited by the Fulbright Commission in Pakistan and interviewed by staff from the MMA and ITD last December. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad vets all selected participants, conducting thorough background checks and assisting them in obtaining U.S. visas.

All expenses for the Pakistani participants are covered by the program grant, including travel, accommodations, meals and materials. The project is funded by the Department of State’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs and is supported by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Those interested in participating in the program this spring or in the future are asked to contact Paul Bockelman at pbockelman@mma.org.