Future Leaders Exchange: Placement

Program News

• Ukrainian FLEX Alumni Improve Local Dog Shelter 05/21/12
  On February 11, 2012, Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumna, Yana Mizyakivska, and seven volunteers arrived at Planet dog shelter in Vinnytsya, Ukraine with monetary donations, gloves, brooms, buckets, and dog food. During their sixth visit to the shelter, the volunteers fed and tended to the dogs, and painted their enclosure.
• Exchanges to Internships: FLEX Begins Its Second Year of Government Internships In Kyrgyzstan 04/16/12
  On February 15, fifteen Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumni began their internships in a range of Kyrgyz government offices including the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Youth, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Social Policy, and the Kyrgyz Parliament. Now in its second year, the U.S. State Department-funded "FLEX Exchanges to Internships" program provides university-age FLEX alumni the opportunity to intern with Kyrgyz government institutions for four months in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The internship program aims to provide FLEX alumni with a unique opportunity for professional development and allows the public sector to benefit from enthusiastic, skilled, U.S.-educated Kyrgyz university students.
• FLEX Alumni Share Valentine's Day With Communities Across Eurasia 04/02/12
  February 14, 2012, Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumni from Ukraine to Kyrgyzstan facilitated a range of activities to celebrate Valentine's Day in their local communities. FLEX alumni taught the value of kindness to elementary school children, shared American traditions with their countrymen, raised funds to support disabled children, and disseminated knowledge about HIV/AIDS across communities in Eurasia.
• Eurasia FLEX Alumni Provide Knowledge and Hope on World AIDS Day 03/12/12
  On December 1, 2011, 62 Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program alumni from across Eurasia marked World AIDS Day by coordinating HIV/AIDS awareness presentations, trainings, flash mobs, and charity concerts with 15 partner organizations in their home communities. Since 1988, World AIDS Day has raised awareness about the transmission of HIV, supported people living with AIDS, and helped to stop the pandemic, which has infected approximately 34 million people worldwide.
• FLEX Alumni Facilitate Exchange Between Orphans and Elderly 01/23/12
  In December 2011, four alumni of the Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program, administered by American Councils for International Education, brought young orphans and elderly people together in an act of American-style volunteerism. For three days, the alumni met with developmentally disabled orphans from Moscow's Boarding School No. 8 to make small gifts and practice songs, which they then presented to residents of an elderly care home. By organizing more than 500 volunteer events in 2011 alone, FLEX program alumni are changing the perception that community-based volunteerism is rare in Russia. The Moscow Times highlighted this volunteer project as a part of a news series on the FLEX program.