Friday, December 7, a delegation from Norway will come to Bethlehem to meet with the Wellness Connection of Minnesota board and staff to talk about our program’s efforts within the Somali community to promote proper healthcare and overall wellness in their lives.

The International Visitor Leadership Program is a national initiative facilitated in Minnesota by the Minnesota International Center. Visitors are invited by the U.S. Department of State to come to this country for approximately 3 weeks to meet with their professional counterparts and experience American culture without publicity or protocol.  They typically travel to 5 different cities and will spend 3 days in Minnesota, meeting with a variety of organizations and individuals.

U.S. ambassadors have rated the International Visitor Leadership Program the most useful public diplomacy tool of all State Department programs.  In addition to our better-known public events, the Minnesota International Center hosted more than 390 State Department International Visitors last year, all of whom are emerging leaders in their fields.  More than 200 current and former chiefs of state and heads of government are alumni of this program, including Tony Blair (UK), Gerhard Schroeder (Germany), Megawati Sukarnoputri (Indonesia), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya) and many more. 

The Minnesota International Center (MIC) hosts visitors on a wide variety of topics, including education, trade, human rights, journalism and many more.  As you may know, MIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan member-supported organization dedicated to inspiring our community to understand global issues and cultures in an ever changing world.  For more information about the Minnesota International Center, please feel free to visit our website at www.micglobe.org [1] and scroll down to click on the link to our 2005-06 Annual Report on the left side of the webpage.