From October 16-18, 2023, the Home Office in Washington, D.C. held an in-person all-staff gathering with about 50 Home Office staff, including representatives from our Colombia and Mexico Country Offices. The gathering focused on organizational team building and finalizing our strategic plan for 2024-2030. We look forward to coming together in person again next year to keep building valuable connections and reviewing the implementation of our new strategy.

Partners is happy to announce that we have been awarded funding for the new 2024-2028 grant cycle of the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program in the Caribbean Basin. Under F2F, Partners will seek to generate sustainable, broad-based economic growth in the agricultural sector and facilitate opportunities for people-to-people level exchanges throughout the Caribbean Basin. We will host volunteers in the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Guatemala, and Guyana. We look forward to working with in-country partners and volunteers in early 2024.

At the end of August 2023, Partners celebrated the successful closing of its sub-award from Fundación para la Paz y la Democracia (FUNPADEM) for the U.S. Department of Labor-funded Implementing a Culture of Labor Compliance in Costa Rica’s Agricultural Exporting Sector program. Partners also supported extending operations to Honduras. The technical specialist in Honduras, contracted by Partners, provided the project team with vital support in the liaising of the project with national institutions of the justice system and with labor unions in Honduras, regarding the development of trainings for labor officials and workers.

On October 5, 2023, the 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund launched their competition for institutions in the U.S. and Colombia to provide bilateral climate-action training opportunities. On October 6, 2023, the 100K program announced the launch of the 100K Exchange Network, our brand-new online professional development community tailored exclusively for current and past participants of 100K exchange programs. This month, our 100K program continued its call to register for a capacity-building workshop at the Conference of the Americas on International Education on November 8, 2023.

In October, the USAID Mission Director, Anu Rajarman, and the Minister of Education, Aurora Vergara, visited one of Juntos Aprendemos' schools in Cartagena, Colombia. They conducted a joint reading session to continue promoting reading as a foundational skill to commemorate the Day of Cultural and Ethnic Diversity in the country. Juntos Aprendemos donated a collection of curated books (about inclusion and diversity) to the school. Later in the month, the program led a panel and roundtable about education and migration at the Ministry of Education's National Educational Forum.

In honor of World Mental Health Day on October 10, and to raise awareness of and encourage our staff to prioritize their mental well-being, our Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning, who is knowledgeable in Yogic Science, shared how to practice mindfulness and led the staff through a meditation practice.

In addition, on October 21, 2023, Partners’ staff represented our organization at the 2023 DC Out of the Darkness Walk in support of suicide awareness and community prevention. Partners staff generously donated $300 to contribute to this noble cause.

After three years of collaboration through the 100,000 Strong in the Americas (100K) Innovation Fund that provided student exchange opportunities for higher education institutions in the U.S. and Mexico, the initiative concluded with extraordinary outcomes in collaboration, learning, and innovation, thanks to the generous support of Fundación Banorte, Fundación Gruma, and the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

“Let’s celebrate the great achievements that have been made possible thanks to the joint efforts of all of us,” Banorte Chairman Carlos Hank González said. “I am pleased to have contributed to the commitment of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to promote education.”

The Minister of National Education of Colombia, Aurora Vergara Figueroa, commemorated the Day of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Cartagena de Indias, where she delivered a digital classroom and a supply of books with diversity themes for 180 students, thanks to the partnership of our program Juntos Aprendemos, funded by USAID, and the Computadores para Educar program. These actions will strengthen the use of technology in the classroom and the development of cognitive processes, while promoting inclusive and intercultural education through reading.

As a benefit to all of our Chapter members across the Americas, members can book professional meeting spaces for free at our Washington, D.C. Home Office. All of our conference and meeting rooms are perfect for trainings, meetings, and events. Our newly renovated spaces are equipped with medium-to-large tables, comfortable seats, high-quality video-conferencing technology, wireless internet, and well-stocked coffee and tea stations. Individual members can also use one of our “hot desks,” which are individual offices with chairs and monitors that connect to your laptop. When Chapters visit D.C., they will have a place to convene and change lives. Please email membership@partners.net or click here for more information.