| The Latin American International Conference, CILA 2006, opened in Bávaro, Dominican Republic, with a warm atmosphere full of expectation and the massive and enthusiastic participation of almost 1,500 from 11 to 22 year-olds students coming from all over the country and Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Canada. |
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| The eager participants simulated the sessions and operations of the United Nations System agencies after having completed a thorough training in the regulations, procedures and protocols of the international organizations, their governing and operating bodies and their functions. |
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| This second edition of CILA was dedicated to the development of the entrepreneurial spirit and the creation of employment for the youth, two areas that the United Nations |
Association of the Dominican Republic (UNA-DR) has been working during the last year with different training of trainers workshops, starting business incubators, raising awareness and brining |
the subject to the Dominican private sector, other youth associations and the public sector, partnering with the Ministry of Youth and both Ministries of Education. |
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The keen youth followed attentively the opening ceremony and the encouraging words from the national and international guests of honour, taking the lead from the Conference Secretary General, Laiden Fuster; Pilar Sandoval, Executive Director of UNA-DR, and Natasha Despotovic, Vice-President and Executive Director of Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD.) Juan Carlos Brandt, Chief of the UN Department of Public Information for Non-Governmental Organizations (DPI/NGO); Lelei LeLaulu, President and CEO of Counterpart International; Johanna Mendelson-Forman, Special Advisor to the UN Chief of Mission to Haiti (MINUSTAH) and other representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank; Irving Stolberg, President, United Nations Association-U.S., Connecticut Chapter, and Katherine Acosta, UNA-RD Media Coordinator. |
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| Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE) and Global Foundation for Democracy and Development (GFDD) are particularly fond of the United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic, whose headquarters are located in our office in Santo Domingo, and whose program we support institutionally, with whom our institutions share an Honorary President, Dr. Leonel Fernández, and a Vice-President, Natasha Despotovic. |
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CILA is only one of the many activities developed by UNA-RD, among which are the Model UN at UN headquarters in New York City and Model Organization of American States. |
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