Youth Ambassadors From Brazil Visit
On
January, for the 3rd year, a special group of Youth Ambassadors arrived
in Indiana. The Youth Ambassadors are part of a program initiated by
the American Ambassador in Brasilia that has been functioning for
several years. It is collaboration between the U.S. State Department
and Partners of the Americas. The embassy advertises all over Brazil,
selects the best 25 applicants and pays for their travel to the US.
Partners then provides a program for them for two weeks; one in
Washington DC and then a week in the Midwest. The youth are divided
into groups of 5, plus an adult "shepherd" and sent to Indiana,
Illinois, Nebraska, Tennessee and West Virginia.
 The
youth were escorted by Juliano Streb Nogueira, President of the RS
Partners. They were met at the airport by Indiana Coordinator Hal
Roepke and taken to their respective host families; Eduardo to the
LeBlanc family in Muncie, Bruno to the Bousman family in Anderson, Luis
Henrique to the Mahon family in Huncie, Renata to the Richards family
in Terre Haute and Ronaldo to the Chezem-Arnold family in Muncie.
Juliano
Nogueira stayed with the Roepkes in Muncie. Juliano is President of the
Partners commity in Rio Grande do Sul and no stranger in Indiana. His
program focussed on learning about fund raising and involved meetings
with officers of United Way, Habitat for Humanity and other volunteer
organizations. He also met with several Hoosiers planning to go to RS
on Partners Projects this Spring and Summer.
Each
host family had it's own program; often involving some time at school
shadowing the teen in the host family, plus sports events, shopping
malls and dinners together at home with typical American foods.
 On
the last evening of their week in Indiana the brasilieros went to
Indianápolis and met the IN Partners board of Directors, were given a
tour of the Indiana State House and enjoyed a dinner with several board
members at an Italian restaurant. The brasilieros enjoyed their
experiences and some have written diary entries that are posted on the partners.net web site.
The groups' departure on January 27 was a somewhat tearful event but all made it safely to their homes in Brazil. |
By
the end of January we completed the visits of six Brazilians, who spent
a week in Indiana on a special Youth Ambassador program sponsored by
the U.S. Ambassador to Brazil, and we are currently hosting six other
Indiana/Rio Grande do Sul Youth Ambassadors who are spending two months
with Hoosier families. This month we are hosting Nielsen Pereira, our
2005 Teacher-in-Residence from Cultural in Porto Alegre and Joice Brito
e Cunha and three of her students on a project entitled "Pink
Confessions." By Carnival time (end of February) we will have hosted 16
Brazilians! This newsletter contains reports about some of these visits
as well as information about other Partners events- VSAI's Brazil
Celebration, our Partners Feijoada. It's a big beginning for what will
be a very good year.
