Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, June 23, 2010 - Fundación Cisneros, Fundación Tropicalia and the Ministry of Education signed a collaborative agreement to join efforts in order to provide greater educational opportunities for the people of the Dominican Republic.
The agreement was signed at the Ministry of Education offices in the presence of various National Directors of Education, other national government authorities and representatives from Fundación Cisneros’ and the Fundación Tropicalia’s partner institutions, such as the Ministry of Culture, the Centro Cultural Eduardo Leon Jimenes, the Vocational Schools of the Armed Forces, and Indotel.
This agreement, which took place during the Virtual Educa 2010 event, was signed by Mr. Melanio Paredes, Minister of Education, Ms. Adriana Cisneros de Griffin, President of Fundación Cisneros, and Mr. William Phelan, President of Fundación Tropicalia.
The agreement will allow both institutions to proceed with the strategic alliance they have agreed upon to develop programs within the educational system of the Dominican Republic, most notably the implementation of Piensa en arte/Think Art, an educational platform based on the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, a major educational and cultural initiative of the Fundación Cisneros, designed to develop key problems solving skills as well as other cognitive skills.
The agreement will also designate the Instituto Nacional de Formación y Capacitación del Magisterio Dominicano (INAFOCAM) as coordinator of Fundación Cisneros´ Actualización de Maestros en Educación (Professional Development for Educators) or AME program, in order to strengthen the professional development of active teachers through training courses that will be available to them. Finally, the agreement makes the existing alliance between Fundación Tropicalia and the Ministry of Education official for more effective collaboration in the School Renovation and Maintenance Program (PRyME) being carried out in Miches as part of Tropicalia’s Corporate Social Responsibility efforts.
Adriana Cisneros de Griffin said: “With this agreement that we are signing with the Ministry of Education of Dominican Republic we are assuming the commitment of something that we have been doing since 2005, and we have decided to make it more official in order to amplify the benefits of our activities. With the valuable support of the Ministry of Education we can strengthen our presence in the communities, assuring the viability and sustainability of our educational programs”.
William Phelan, president of Fundación Tropicalia, expressed his satisfaction with the signing of the agreement that, as he said, is clearly an example of the relevance of advancing public and private alliances that involve coordination, cooperation and mutual exchange to strengthen education in the Dominican Republic. He added that he feels grateful to the Ministry of Education and his country for opening the doors and facilitating channels to make Fundación Cisneros and Fundación Tropicalia programs available to thousands of teachers and students.
This agreement is the third in its kind that the Fundación Cisneros signs in the Dominican Republic in recent years; the first was signed in 2005 in alliance with the Department of Education and other institutions, which allowed more than 1,500 teachers to participate in the AME educational initiative, and the second in 2009 gave teachers, children and parents free access to the content of the cl@se educational channel.
In this way, the Fundación Cisneros and the Fundación Tropicalia assume the commitment to take a step forward with the support of the Ministry of Education in making this educational effort feasible so that children, adolescents and adults who participate in different educational initiatives can enjoy the education they deserve.
About the Ministry of Education of Dominican Republic
This Ministry regulates the Dominican Education System according to the General Law of Education No. 66-97. This law guarantees the right of all Dominicans to have access to a quality education through the training of free, creative and critical men and women, able to participate and build a free, fair, democratic and participative society, capable of questioning it in a permanent way, who can combine productive work, community service and humanistic, scientific and technological training with the participation and integration of the different sectors of society to contribute to national development and to its own.
About the Fundación Cisneros
The Fundación Cisneros is a private, nonprofit organization established by Patricia Phelps de Cisneros and Gustavo A. Cisneros, and presided by Adriana Cisneros de Griffin. The Fundación Cisneros is devoted to improving education throughout Latin America, and fostering global awareness of the continent’s heritage and its many contributions to world culture. In the long run, its innovative programs empower communities, promote freedom of speech, lay the basis for stable democracies, promote economic development, and enhance understanding among nations. The main educational programs of the Fundación Cisneros are: The Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Piensa en arte/Think Art, and Actualización de Maestros en Educación (Professional Development for Educators). These programs are implemented through local and strategic partnerships, and are part of the Corporate Social Responsibility vision of the Cisneros Group of Companies, aimed at fostering sustainable development and building social capital in the region.
Fundación Tropicalia
Fundación Tropicalia, established in 2008, furthers the Corporate Social Responsibility strategy of Tropicalia, the Cisneros Group of Companies’ luxury, environmentally responsible tourism real estate development, located in Miches, in El Seibo Province in northeastern Dominican Republic. Fundación Tropicalia designs and implements invaluable community affairs initiatives that address the interests of Tropicalia’s diverse stakeholders; attend to the social, environmental, and economic principles of sustainable development; and promote the United Nations Millennium Development Goals in the region. Fundación Tropicalia supports its efforts with Fundación Cisneros’ educational programs and builds partnerships with the public and private sectors, in addition to civil society, to guarantee the efficiency and effectiveness of its initiatives. Ultimately, these programs seek to ensure the comprehensive development and prosperity of Miches.