GFDD supports the promotion of innovative thinking in education in the rest of the Caribbean through the Virtual Educa and the Multilateral Initiative of Educ@ation for Human Development (IMEDH) programs

In preparing the celebration of the first Virtual Educa in a non-Spanish speaking program  in Suriname taking place at the time of the Organization of American States ministerial and high authorities meeting in early March 2012, GFDD’s Washington office director, Asunción Sanz, joined the rest of partners with the Ministry of Education of Suriname in Paramaribo for a three-day meeting.

GFDD is bringing to other areas of the
Caribbean its capacity and accumulated experience in implementing a development program as it is Virtual Educa, which promotes the use of innovative thinking to education with the use of technology facilitating access to resources beneficial to teachers, the classroon, universities and education planners and especialists along with local and international private sector, public sector and civil society.

During this visit to Paramaribo Asunción Sanz joined
Virtual Educa Executive Secretary, José María Antón, OAS Human Development Director, Marie Levens, and OAS University Network Development, Nelly Gochicoa. In Suriname’s capital, they held meetings with the Minister of Education, Mr. Raymond Sapoen and members of his staff, as well as high authorities of the Anton de Kom University of Surinam. The purpose of this meetings was to engage and further explain the goals and objectives of the type of
forums like Virtual Educa, as well as to identify potential partners and conditions for a successful celebration of this first Virtual Educa in a non-Spanish speaking country and its possibilities for expansion to other countries in the region.

In its capacity as an established civil society organization, GFDD was able to share its ample
experience in implementing development programs in the Dominican Republic with the organizers of the event.  It stressed the importance of this celebration for the country and, in particular, the role this event has played in developing and modernizing the DR’s eductional system both in terms of integrating the country’s educational programs with production processes and for its efforts to incorporate the use of technology to reach out to the populations in
remote areas thereby assuring a more equitable and inclusive educational access to all Dominicans throughout the country.  

Suriname, a former Dutch colony, is on the continent of South America, just North of the Equator, bordered to the South by Brazil, the Atlantic Ocean to the North, and the French and British Guyanas on each side. The capital is Paramaribo, on the West bank of the Suriname River. Paramaribo, with its colonial red brick and wood buildings, was
included in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2002. The country, with a population of some half million, constitutes a real melting pot where original inhabitats share the country with the descendants of Dutch colonizers, Surinamese of African descent, as well as those arrived after 1863 as contract laborers from India, Indonesia and China. During the colonial period Jews, Lebanese and Haitians, Brazilians, Chinese and citizens from other neighboring countries found a home in
Suriname, where all of them found a welcoming country.

GFDD considers this project as an opportunity to exercise and reinforce its capacity and accumulated experience in bringing new and innovative projects for the country, in developing national and international networks around a development area or subject and facilitating the connection and the role of international organizations and programs and their implementation.

GFDD and its sister organization in the Dominican Republic, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) have been partners of Virtual Educa since its creation more than ten years ago, as are also firm supporters of the Organization of American States and its initiatives, as part of its civil society community.
GFDD is also a partner in the Multilateral Initiative of Educ@tion for Human Development (IMEDH for its initials in Spanish) along with Virtual Educa, OAS, Parlatino, and the Latin American Association of Universities, UDUAL, as well as the University of Panama.

Other related links:
http://www.virtualeduca.org
http://adekus.uvs.edu/
http://www.minov-beip.org/smartcms/default.asp
http://www.imedh.org/