Experience and History
Current Endeavors
Success Stories

Partners Education and Culture programs promote and spread understanding, cooperation and knowledge throughout the western hemisphere.

EXPERIENCE AND HISTORY

For over 20 years, Partners of the Americas has benefited from annual grants from the U.S. Department of State's Office of Citizen Exchanges for its Education and Culture program. The program funds travel and projects designed to foster intellectual growth, increase participation in community affairs, strengthen linkages between educational institutions, and increase awareness of and sensitivity to cultural differences throughout the Western Hemisphere. Under the banner of education and culture, Partners chapters have exchanged professionals in a variety of fields and for a range of activities.

Artists, musicians, teachers, local government officials, local judges and others have participated in Partners funded travel and project grants. Chapter presidents have also visited their counterpart chapters to strengthen ties and develop new educational and cultural events.

Trips and projects can result in the creation of lasting relationships between international communities. For example, a travel grant many years ago for a Georgia Partner to visit Pernambuco, Brazil led to a number of self-funded visits back and forth, university linkage agreements, and the funding from other sources to pursue similar goals.

CURRENT ENDEAVORS

Each year, Partners offers approximately 100 travel exchange grants to chartered Partners chapters for qualified adult professionals to visit their counterpart Partner chapters for an organized 10-day visit. Partners also annually provides about 25 assistance grants for small projects, which address the same themes that exchanges do and which are spelled out in the Education and Culture Resource section of our web page.

To maximize the desired impact of our program, Partners recommends that chapters organize educational exchanges and projects that involve teachers and adult community leaders rather than student exclusive exchanges.

Partners encourages the participation in planning and implementation of small projects by both chapters in a partnership. Altough Partner chapters in Latin America and the Caribbean carry out most projects, consult with their U.S. counterpart chapter for advice and guidance.

SUCCESS STORIES

Margaret Edmonds, conservation education intern at the Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, traveled to Paraguay on a Kansas-Paraguay Partners conservation education project. During her July visit to Asuncion, Ms. Edmunds trained forty teachers on how to use materials from Project Learning Tree, Project Wild, and Project Wild Aquatic. She worked with Colegio del Sol students in promoting the importance and rewards of volunteerism. She held workshops on graphic construction, animal husbandry, and met with teenagers from the English Language Institute. With help from the Partners colleagues and students, she erected 30 graphics at the zoo that discuss the natural history of Paraguayan species and their importance to the country's ecosystem. She met with a noted veterinarian and rancher and scientists regarding conducting wildlife research, the Director General of the Asuncion Municipality to discuss the zoo's relevance in conservation education; and initiated a volunteer program for students to assist the zoo. She had discussions with U.S. Ambassador Greenlee to report on her activities, and discuss the value of conservation education worships, the student volunteer initiative and the function of the zoo in environmental and conservation education.

Molly O'Brien, a Montana Partners volunteer and avid skier, traveled to help her counterpart chapter, Patagonia, Argentina, start a program for disabled skiers. She worked every day for a month in Argentina, teaching the disabled and helping to organize an adaptive ski program for them. She taught one young skier with spina bifida to ski and at the same time, helped improve the child's self-esteem and earned the deep appreciation of the girl's family members, other students and teachers.

The La Paz, Bolivia-Utah Partners "Education for Democracy" project promoted democratic values in five educational districts by assisting 200 teachers and 25 separate classes. The La Paz, Bolivia Partners worked closely with educators in this grass roots effort to provide materials and practical experiences in democracy.