Excitement at JCI!!!

The U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon visited JCI World Headquarters this afternoon. He had already visited Monsanto and will be giving a speech at SLU later today. JCI has had a relationship with the United Nations for over 50 years and in 2003 JCI adopted a resolution to support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty & hunger, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, global compact and corporate social responsibility. JCI has since developed a program called “Nothing but Nets” which provides bed nets sprayed with insecticide to prevent malaria in Africa. We have many local member organizations in Africa who can distribute the nets in an efficient & effective manner.

Our 2009 President, Jun Sup Shin is from South Korea and has made climate change his priority this year. Ban Ki-moon is also from South Korea and he is in the St. Louis area to discuss the issue of climate change, so from what I hear he said he wanted to stop at one non-profit while in town and JCI was chosen. A man from the State Department came to check out the office Tuesday. A few more men came from U.N. Security yesterday to let us know the rules-no media, no unauthorized guests, no fast moves, etc., etc., etc. We were all very excited; especially Edson who has visited the U.N. many times and has a framed picture of himself with the former U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan in his office. He called this a historical event in JCI history and is very proud.
We hired a professional photographer who took many pictures and we were able to get a group shot but I don’t have access to it yet so here are some pictures I took.