America’s cluelessness on the international front is well-documented.

A survey last year by the Pew Research Center showed that respondents’ knowledge of both national and foreign affairs had remained about the same since 1989, despite the attacks on America, our entry into wars in the Persian Gulf and Afghanistan, and a proliferation of news sources.

Three of 10 people surveyed couldn’t name the vice president of the United States. Fewer than four in 10 could identify Vladimir Putin as the president of Russia.

Susan Jacoby, a scholar and author, ducked into a New York City bar seeking respite the day the World Trade Center was destroyed. She listened to a conversation in which one man told another that Pearl Harbor was “when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War.”

That overheard snippet led Jacoby to write a book, “The Age of American Unreason,” in which she argues that Americans are growing dumber about world affairs and, worse, are proud of it.

That might indeed be the trend. But the happier news is that it’s being bucked by efforts large and small.

Recently I listened to Pamela Couture, academic dean at St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, tell an amazing story.

In January, Couture took a month’s research leave to study peacemaking processes in the Congo. She wanted to respond to the kindness of people there with a gift. Her school’s dean of development, James Glass, got on the case. One phone call led to another. He was in touch with the U.S. Department of Defense and a host of relief organizations.

The upshot is that, in less than two months, Couture and Glass and their newfound partners delivered $14 million worth of pharmaceuticals to the Congo’s Katanga region.

Here’s another story: Last May, three people met in a Kansas City coffee shop. Maurice Brooks spent a career abroad with the Air Force and now is an operations chief at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. Abdul Bakar is a Somalian refugee who works for Jewish Vocational Service. Robert Peaden is a firefighter at Whiteman.

They had met through the local chapter of the United Nations Association and had a project in mind: a group that would get a new generation of leaders involved in international issues.

Today the Kansas City area chapter of the Young Professionals for International Cooperation has 30 active members and is looking for more.

They’ve put together an ambitious schedule of events for next week to bring attention to the political and humanitarian crisis in Darfur. It includes forums, a concert and an art reception featuring paintings by Bakar.

“We come with different opinions,” Bakar said. “The most critical point is that ignorance is a crime.”

One more development: The University of Missouri-Columbia recently announced that two of its students, Laura Merritt and Jennifer Kimball, have received the prestigious Truman Scholarship.

Both college seniors have founded advocacy groups. Merritt’s group deals with health and education. Kimball is co-founder of Stop Traffic, which works to build awareness of human trafficking for labor and the sex trade.

Kimball said she learned about the issue in classes and did a research project on trafficking in the European Union.

“The more you learn about it, the more you feel like you have to act,” she said. “I’ve really come to see how international issues and efforts are connected with local issues and actions.”

It doesn’t take a great deal to shine a light in the darkness. Just willpower, energy and links with like-minded people. Efforts like those described here can erase, if nothing else, our reputation for having our collective heads in the sand.