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April 03, 2008 Activities ahead of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank’s Board of Governors will start on Thursday, April 3 in Miami with IDB President Luis Alberto Moreno attending events in two contrasting settings. Moreno will speak at 9 AM at the Government Leaders Forum—Americas 2008, an event organized by Microsoft, one of the world’s top technology corporations, at a hotel in Coral Gables, one of Miami-Dade County’s most upscale districts. In the afternoon the IDB president will pitch in with other volunteers to help spruce up a community center in Allapattah, a striving neighborhood with a large population of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants. At both events Moreno is due to underscore the power of partnerships to improve people’s lives – one of the key themes of the IDB’s annual meeting, which will attract thousands of participants to Miami from April 4 through April 8. In his speech at the Government Leaders Forum Moreno will announce a US$2 million grant from the IDB’s Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) to expand POETA, the Partnership in Opportunities for Employment through Technology in the Americas. This program launched by Microsoft and the Organization of American States trains people with disabilities and at-risk youth to acquire technology and job skills. The MIF grant will allow POETA to boost its job placement efforts – a key aspect of the program – in Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru. Moreno and Microsoft senior vice president Orlando Ayala will take part in a press conference at 10:15 AM at the Government Leaders Forum, which is being held at the Westin Colonnade Hotel (180 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables, Aragon Room). From that venue Moreno will go to the Latinos United in Action community center (3321 NW 17 Ave, Miami), which is undergoing an “extreme makeover” thanks to the efforts of local residents and organizations together with a broad coalition of public and private sector partners, including the IDB, Microsoft, Direct TV and the City of Miami. Direct TV is preparing a pilot program on the makeover of the Allapattah community center, which offers afterschool activities for children and youths, aiming to use it as a model for a campaign involving the IDB and Microsoft to radically improve schools in impoverished communities in Latin America. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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