Submitted by Lori J. Durante
DELRAY BEACH, FL – – – Sister Cities of Delray Beach, Florida is hosting a two-week Youth Leadership & Cultural Exchange Program between July 7 – 18, 2025. The dynamic two-week experience is designed to empower local youth through leadership development, cultural education, and international awareness located Creative Arts School at Old School Square, 51 North Swinton Avenue, Delray Beach, Florida
Sister Cities of Delray Beach, Florida is hosting a free two-week Youth Leadership & Cultural Exchange Program. The dynamic two-week experience designed to empower local youth through leadership development, cultural education, and international awareness. “This immersive program extends our mission to promote peace, unity, and global cooperation through citizen diplomacy. By nurturing leadership qualities and fostering international mindedness in our youth, we are building a more connected, inclusive, and culturally aware future for our community,” says Daphney Antoine, President of the of the Delray Beach Sister Cities Board of Directors.
Among the presenters for the two-week program are Oz Mensah and his wife Rhonda Mensah who are longtime members of the Delray Beach Sister Cities Board of Directors. On day two of the program, Rhonda Mensah, who is a human resources executive, led a presentation entitled Self-Awareness: Knowing Me, Growing Me. On day 7, Oz Mensah will facilitate an introduction to Kiswahili & Tanzanian Traditions. Oz Mensah spent his formative years living in Moshi, Tanzania in East Africa because his father was a Christian missionary for the Lutheran Church. When Oz Mensah’s family moved to Delray Beach, Florida, he became a teacher at Carver Middle School in Delray Beach from which he retired.
The sister cities program is an international organization created in 1956 by President Dwight E. Eisenhower as a people-to-people citizen diplomacy in an effort to increase global cooperation and promote cultural understanding in hopes of decreasing the chance of future world wars and conflicts. The City of Delray Beach established its first official sister cities affiliation with Miyazu, Japan in 1977 to develop and strengthen a bond of friendship with that city because it was the hometown of George Morikami who had donated over 200 acres of land to Palm Beach County for whom the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens is named. For nearly 30 years, the two cities have alternately sent high school students to visit each other’s city as part of a cultural exchange program.
The second Sister Cities established was with Moshi, Tanzania; the third Aquin, Haiti and lastly was Pesaro, Italy.
Middle school and high school students aged 11 to 15 years old are attending the Sister Cities of Delray Beach, Florida Youth Leadership & Cultural Exchange Program.