Nauruan represents Pacific Islands at US leadership programme
Alina Amwano, from Nauru is representing the Pacific Islands in the 2017 International Visitor Leadership Programme (IVLP) at Washington DC.
It is the US Department of State’s professional exchange programme. US embassy’s regional public affairs officer Dmitri Tarakhovsky said each year nearly 5000 international visitors visited the US as part of the IVLP programme.
“More than 200,000 international visitors have engaged with Americans through the IVLP, including more than 335 current or former Chiefs of State or Heads of Government,” Mr Tarakhovsky said.
IVLP is a short term visit program to the United States for a month and as part of an experience, participants stay for a few days with American families. Mr Tarakhovsky also said that through these short visits to the United States, current and emerging foreign leaders are able to forge lasting relationships with their American counterparts. Ms Amwano will participate in a Multi-Regional Project ‘Youth: Inspiring Leadership and Civic Participation’ alongside young people from 23 countries.
Participants will receive a broad overview of public and private initiatives concerning youth development, volunteerism, community service, and civic engagement. Every year participants are nominated and selected by the staff at US embassies around the world.
The programme is from June 12-30 in Washington DC. Each year, the US Embassy Suva nominates four to six participants from Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu.
Ms Amwano left early this week.