GUARUJÁ - On October 2, Mission Director Jeffery Bell along with the Chargé d’ Affaires a.i. for the U.S. Embassy in Brazil, Lisa Kubiske, the U.S. Consul General for São Paulo, Thomas White, and USAID staff members visited Dow Chemical’s industrial complex in Vicente de Carvalho/Guarujá, São Paulo State. The purpose of the visit was to see the implementation of Dow’s Ambassadors of the Environment (AOTE) project, which is one of the +Unidos projects for 2009. 

AOTE, which is also part of USAID/Brazil’s portfolio of public-private partnerships for FY 2009, is a non-profit initiative that carries out educational activities linked to the preservation of the environment for public and private school youth. During the period of the visit, the group had the opportunity to see public school students from a disadvantaged community learning concepts of sustainability, recycling, alternative energy sources, and preservation of ecosystems.