The Dominican Republic and the Office of the First Lady (12/05)

It is not often that an Ambassador from the United Nations invites you to his country to meet the spouse of the president. When this unlikely event does occur, it is best to drop everything and go. So I went, arriving in the Dominican Republic in early December 2005.

The First Lady of the Dominican Republic,
Dr. Margarita Cedeño de Fernández.

One of the dynamic women of the 21st Century, the First Lady of the Dominican Republic, Dr Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, met with our team to discuss the founding of Orphans International Dominican Republic.

Ambassador Lara-Peña met us at the airport and in minutes we were through Immigration and Customs. The Ambassador was firmly committed to the children of the Dominican Republic and had already established a project for orphans and neighborhood children in his own countryside hacienda. We were able to visit his project and were very impressed by it. The Ambassador’s project had stood the test of time and promised to continue long into the future. It featured a community health clinic, a computer laboratory, and homes for kids. In fact, it looked very much like an Orphans International project minus the international component.