Latin America and the Caribbean

Effecting Change Through Film

Through documentary film, Mitch St. Pierre aims to raise public awareness of conflicts around the world. The Canada native, who has osteogenesis imperfecta and uses a wheelchair, has traveled to over forty countries.

Featured Person: Mallory Watts

Meet Mallory, a Masters student in Deaf Education who spent a summer in Mexico teaching deaf children.

Exploring Cross-Cultural Issues of Women in the Caribbean

A Gilman scholarship helped fund Dawn Schafer's domestic violence research project in Trinidad and Tobago. Learn how her physical disability led her to pursue a college education.

Graduate Student Recognized for Work with Disabled Communities Abroad

Dan Erchick, an American graduate of Rice University who uses a prosthesis, received the Linda Faye Williams Prize in Social Justice, which rewarded his contribution and commitment to projects that economically empower people with disabilities in developing countries. Read the full article, "Rice Alum Takes a Stand" (Rice News, May 2010), to learn about his role as an advocate for disabled communities in Haiti and Sierra Leone, and how these communities' perception of Dan differed from his self-identity.

Planting Seeds of Change in Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras

Traveling through Central America on an exchange to promote peace, Jean Parker, who is blind, says she found solidarity among disabled people and non-disabled people alike.

Immersion and Conversation in Costa Rica

Learn how Adriana, a student who is blind and uses a service dog, integrated herself into the rural and urban communities of Costa Rica while studying Spanish. Her vivid description of the textures and sounds experienced in the middle of a tropical rainforest are not to be missed!

Dreams Come True in Italy and Costa Rica

Sarah Franz studied abroad in Florence, Italy on a University of Michigan Summer Abroad Program and participated in MIUSA's summer exchange in Costa Rica. Sarah has chronic health-related conditions and is Deaf. She uses English, ASL, and an FM system for communication access.

Featured Person: Arie Farnam

Meet Arie, whose career as a student, English instructor, and journalist extends over the landscapes of a dozen countries.

Volunteering in the Peace Corps (Paraguay)

In this interview, Christa Bucks Camacho, who uses a wheelchair, recounts her experience in the Peace Corps as an urban youth volunteer in Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay. During her two years, she worked with at-risk youth, encouraging them to stay in school.

Tips for Overseas Travel to Costa Rica

Tracee Garner was a delegate on the Costa Rica Leadership, Diversity and Disability Rights Exchange, funded by the DeWitt Wallace/Youth Travel Enrichment Fund, established by the co-founder of the Reader’s Digest Association.

Outside the Classroom: Environmental Fieldwork in Costa Rica

Rhonda Neuhaus applied for the School for Field Studies program, which led her to Costa Rica to study community development. Rhonda uses prosthetic legs for mobility.

Encouraging Independence in Brazil

Denise Decker did a 3-year fellowship with Partners of the Americas (Partners) to design and conduct a project, titled "Encouraging Independence." The goal was to train volunteers to help people with disabilities in Brasilia, Brazil - a culture where volunteerism, especially as it relates to people with disabilities, is a relatively new phenomenon.

Organizational Development in Kingston, Jamaica

Carly Panchura is the past vice president of the Western New York-Jamaica chapter of Partners of the Americas. She later attended the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Sin Patria Accesible…La Democracia es Imposible

Jenny Kern, who is on the board of directors of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in California, USA, and uses a wheelchair, conducted trainings in Costa Rica as a participant in a professional exchange program.

Music Around the World

John Winn, a musician from Virginia, USA, who is of short stature, shared music and culture in Cambodia, Mexico, Russia and South Korea through the Jazz Ambassadors Program, now known as Rhythm Road: American Music Abroad.

Volunteering in Costa Rica

Alan Shain worked on a construction project in Costa Rica with youth from all over the world, including his home country of Canada. Alan has a physical disability and uses a walker.

Accessible Everything: An accessible & inclusive travel blog for people with disabilities

Craig Grimes, who uses a wheelchair, writes about accessible tourism for people with disabilities. Craig has traveled to over 17 countries and blogs, photographs, and records video footage during his journeys.

Pushing Beyond Limits (Argentina)

Cheri Blauwet, a wheelchair user and Paralympic gold medalist in wheelchair racing, writes about her college study abroad experience to Argentina on a National Security Exchange Program Boren Scholarship. Published in Abroad View.

Peruvian Andes Adventure for Blind Youth

High school students with and without vision impairments hike in the Andes mountains in Peru.

Nepal, Peru and Costa Rica - Volunteering Perspectives from a Wheelchair User

Megan Smith writes her blog as a college freshman volunteering in Kathmandu, Nepal with Helping Hands. As a high school senior she volunteered in Peru and Costa Rica with Cross-Cultural Solutions.