FUNGLODE and Jarabacoa Educators Receive Students from the United States

(Santo Domingo, March 8, 2010) – The Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) along with educators and families of Jarabacoa welcomed eight students and two professors on Saturday from Oroville School of Washington, as part of a student exchange program between Dominican and US schools.  

Eight families from Jarabacoa will house the eight
Oroville students for nearly three weeks beginning on March 26. A first group of eight exchange students and two teachers from the New York schools arrived last month on February 13th to Villa Riva and Barraquito, in San Francisco de Macorís where they stayed until this past Saturday.    

As part of the student exchange program which supports the “Three Forests, One World,” project, a group of 16 Dominican
students and two teachers will travel to the United States in April.

The project is an initiative of iEARN, http://iearn.org, an international NGO which receives funds from the US State Department to carry out the US-Dominican student exchange program.

The objective of the initiative is to give American students the opportunity to get to know Dominican culture by staying in homes
with Dominican families, to improve their Spanish skills and to become acquainted with the country’s environment and ecology by being in close contact.

The program of activities organized for the visitors allows them to appreciate, first-hand, the Dominican flora and fauna and to participate in reforestation projects in specific areas.

Throughout their stay, the students will attend classes at the local schools involved in the
program. They will follow the normal school day with their Dominican counterparts in the classrooms and will participate in dialogues and exchanges.

Reception Ceremony

A reception ceremony was held at the Jarabacoa River Club and was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Education as well as Directors of the Jarabacoa schools participating in the project.    

Those in attendance included Father Pablo Abreu, Director of the Santo Domingo Davio School; Professor Tomás Abreu, Director of the Luis Ernesto Uribe High School and Director of the School District of Jarabacoa, Andrés Hernández.

Representing FUNGLODE was Elina María Cruz who gave the welcoming speech in which she expressed the organization’s appreciation for the collaboration on the part of the school
authorities and the integration of the community in the exchange program.
Paul Goris, coordinator of the Education and Technology Unit of FUNGLODE, is the director of the project.