First Graduation from the Children and Youth Forum

First Graduation from the Children and Youth Forum
Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo 8/3/2011

A total of 75 young people successfully completed their leadership training.

“On the part of the First Lady we tell them that we have to practice the values that we preach: humility, solidarity, respect. You young people, with your actions and effort have demonstrated to us that, yes, we can. With these actions we are following the words of Juan Pablo Duarte – with people like you we will have this country forever,”…

On Saturday, the Children and Youth Forum of the Office of the First Lady (DPD in Spanish) held its first graduation ceremony. Seventy five young people, between the ages of 14 and 18, received certificates that qualify them as valuable young leaders.

Beaming with happiness and pride, each child went up to the stage of the auditorium of the Mauricio Báez Cultural Center to receive their certificate. The certificate is the fruit of two months of training, during which they worked on subjects such as leadership, how to become a leader and the characteristics and actions of a leader, defining what is a debate, how to elaborate and give a speech, the protocol for participating in an assembly, among others.

The objective of the Children and Youth Forum is to forge leadership in the young participants of the workshop and instill in them the importance of moral values, as well as giving them the tools and techniques to allow them to spread positive information to other young people around them.

“On the part of the First Lady we tell them that we have to practice the values that we preach: humility, solidarity, respect. You young people, with your actions and effort have demonstrated to us that, yes, we can. With these actions we are following the words of Juan Pablo Duarte – with people like you we will have this country forever,” said Teresa Peralta, director of the Dominican Children’s Public Library.

At the graduation, the new leader, Jeico Alfredo Almonte, expressed appreciation while Moisés Gómez had the honor of making the opening remarks. “Thanks to the First Lady of the Republic and Mrs. Teresa Peralta for having placed her trust in us and for opening this training space resulting in today’s ceremony, each one of us promises to continue this work in the future,” said Gómez.

“I feel incredibly proud of this group of youths that, Saturday after Saturday, came to this center to work, apply themselves and train to be better people. I congratulate the coordinators who enthusiastically and tirelessly worked to help everyone achieve their goals. To you, parents, I urge you to support your children in reaching their goals; the support you give them is what will help them move forward,” said César Heredia, director of the Mauricio Báez Cultural Center.

During the graduation, the children from Group 809 (made up of the youths from the Forum), the Dance-Jazz group from the Dominican Children’s Public Library, young Albany Hernández, among others, lightened up the activity with brilliant performances of singing and dancing.

About the FORUM

The First Lady’s Children and Youth Forum is a space for young people, between the ages of 14 and 18, that promotes acquiring knowledge with a diversity of opinions, free debate, negotiation, the seeking of consensus and resolution, as well as the development of leadership abilities, oration, negotiation and encouragement of reading.

Initiatives of the Forum

The Children and Youth Forum has carried out restoration jobs in the Mirador Park of the West in Haina. This place has been called “The Forest of Values.” It has coordinated the leadership training process of dozens of young people; it has carried out a model General Assembly of the United Nations in the Mauricio Báez Cultural Center, where they debated topics such as caring for the environment and forest preservation and following the call of the UN which announced this year as International Forest Year.

The Children and Youth Forum also assumed the responsibility of directing and teaching about the preservation of a healthy environment to more than 400 teenage girls and boys participating in the Biblio-Verano 2011, which took place in the Dominican Children’s Library during the month of July.