COPE-USA is a nonprofit that was incorporated in Virginia in 1999 to perform international humanitarian work.
The idea for the organization emerged in a Kurdish refugee camp in southern Turkey in the aftermath of the First Gulf War.
They build sustainable, indigenous capabilities to solve problems at home and in emerging democracies,
where resources are few and people are vulnerable. Our major programs are now in the USA.
Their role is to create the opportunities, develop the means and methods, guide and implement efforts, and leave in place a self-sustaining capability.
COPE-USA's model has worked pretty well for a broad range of needs and issues,
from construction to applied medical research. They design and adjust the program to fit reality and the situation
to accomplish the program objectives.
COPE-USA believes training is not enough. Trained people will migrate to any job that enables them to support themselves and their families, so they align training and education with long-term sustainable employment.
They then "graduate" people into real jobs. Sometimes they find the jobs, and sometimes they build a company that will be owned and run by local people (not us) to create the jobs.
Viable, profitable, long-term employment at the end of training is probably the best way to keep people in the field for which they were trained, and to support themselves and their families, and to provide the services that their community and country need