Friendship power spans globe

When President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter helped launch Friendship Force International in 1977, they could not have dreamed the fledgling Atlanta organization would grow into a worldwide movement that has motivated more than a million people to embrace the simple notion that a world of friends can be a world of peace.

As Friendship Force International begins its 35th anniversary year this month, we estimate that FFI has helped more than a million average citizens worldwide to get to know each other as chapter members, or as hosts or guests in traditional home-stay exchanges, or in cultural, educational and other travel adventures.

Whether or not the Carters intentionally promoted Friendship Force International out of a sense of Southern hospitality, they hit upon a key element that attracts people to each other: something called “kitchen-table diplomacy,” a phrase coined by Friendship Force’s visionary and persuasive founder, Dr. Wayne Smith, who originally brought the idea to the Carters.

Now 35 years later, the Friendship Force is alive and well, spreading the message of peace with chapters in more than 365 cities in 57 countries.

As it turns out, Southern hospitality isn’t distinctively ours. All the great cultures of the world cherish the act of providing hospitality to strangers. Spend a few days in the home of a Russian, Japanese or Brazilian, and you’ll quickly learn that we don’t have a monopoly on great hospitality.

Close to 5,000 people this year will become Friendship Force ambassadors and travel to a foreign community to live with a like-minded member of the host city. They’ll be all across Europe, and in Morocco, Kenya and South Africa, Australia, Japan and China. In the United States, 95 communities will receive guests from other countries.

A week after entering their host home, they will bid farewell — as friends. With friendship comes understanding, and with understanding the recognition that the differences that exist don’t have to divide.