IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Creating Jobs for Women in Rural Côte d’Ivoire

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Antoinette Botti (in green shirt), founder and owner of ASSÔWÔ (meaning Stand Up), a cooperative that involves every woman in her village in Cote d'Ivoire

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflecton the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we spotlight, Ms. Antoinette Botti from Cote d’Ivoire, whose work focuses specifically on empowering women in rural environments. Ms. Botti participated in a large group project on volunteerism, and she recounts below the impact that this program had on her, both personally and professionally.

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IVLP Alumni Spotlight: Empowering Women in Rural Areas

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HOCIC's community service programs at a local children's home was inspired by Sunga's time on a Volunteerism IVLP project in 2014.

IVLP Alumni Spotlight features U.S. Department of State International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) alumni as they reflect on the impact of the program and how it has affected their work and lives. Here we feature the Director of Hope for a Child in Christ, a non-profit organisation based in Zimbabwe who participated on the IVLP in 2014. Ms. Sunga Mzeche spent three weeks in the United States visiting non-profit organisations, federal agencies, and corporations to learn about volunteerism and NGO best practices.  

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Program Theme Spotlight: Technology Entrepreneurship

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High Tech Entrepreneurship in Low-Tech Environments Group

Entrepreneurship and innovation are key indicators of a community’s capacity to: grow its economy; develop its workforce; create a diversified workplace; develop leadership skills among its citizenry; and facilitate civic engagement. Entrepreneurship is a tremendous tool for engaging  young people, particularly in underserved communities, by helping them develop the skills necessary to compete in the 21st century economy. Tech entrepreneurship can open up potentially broader opportunities for partnerships with other community stakeholders. Numerous organizations – international, national and local – have focused their resources on developing tech entrepreneurship programs in partnership with educational institutions, businesses and government entities. Developing...

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Visitors from Mongolia translate historical tablet for University of Iowa Library

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Participants from the IVLP

In October of this year, a five-member group of Librarians from Mongolia participated in a three-week International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) on Library Management.  Beyond Washington, DC, the group traveled to Baltimore, Maryland; Albany, New York; Akron Ohio; Iowa City, Iowa; and Reno, Nevada. Visits to public libraries were a principal component of the program and in one location, Iowa City, local librarians were grateful for the unexpected assistance of an IVLP participant.  The University of Iowa brought out an old wood block tablet from Mongolia to demonstrate the library’s broad reach in showcasing other cultures for the community....

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