October 31 - November 7, 2012; Washington, DC; Wisconsin; and Chicago, Illinois
Contact: Washington Foreign Press Center Media Relations Officer Andy Strike, 202-504-6356, email: strikeap2@state.gov
The FPC and AF/PDPA hosted a special tour for West African media to cover both the election horse race and key issues of concern to Africans like transparency, grass roots organization, rule of law and civil society. Media benefited from meetings with government watchdogs and key grassroots groups. Media were particularly impressed by the access to campaign officials, volunteers, and voters from both sides. All of the group's TV and radio media did live Skype and radio spots from the Obama election night headquarters. The highlight of the civil society portion of the tour was our Nigerian correspondent whose mind was "set on fire" by the grassroots mentoring and leadership training programs and he said he would work to implement a similar program as soon as he returned home.
