The Union of Dominican Writers celebrated its fifth anniversary by calling on government authorities to implement a national reading plan.
Avelino Stanley, president of the institution that brings together Dominican writers, stated that “in a document endorsed by five State institutions and two international organizations it is stated that of every 100 children who begin the first year of primary school, only 15 enter university. And of those 15, only 9 leave with a university degree.”
The president of the writers stated that “the dropout and the small number of people who finish a university degree is what explains the low training that the vast majority have and the levels of depravity that exist today on social networks.”
Stanley maintained that “this is an evil that can only be faced by implementing a national reading plan that covers schoolchildren, university students and the population. A plan that puts the educational level of the people of the country in line with the economic development that the Dominican Republic has at the moment.”
35 Distinguished Members join the UED
At the commemoration ceremony of the 5th. anniversary of the Dominican Writers Union, 35 new members joined the organization as Distinguished Members. The personalities who entered the UED were the writers Carmen Sánchez, César Zapata, Dulce Ureña, Julio Cuevas, Irene Pérez Guerra, Dr. José López Larache, William Mejía, Diógenes Abreu, Ismael Díaz Melo, Gerardo Castillo, Nelia Barletta, Rebeca Castellanos, Alberto Garrido, Bileysi Reyes, Bismar Galán and Angela Suazo.
Also part of the new Distinguished Members are judges Francisco Antonio Ortega Polanco and Hermógenes Bienvenido Acosta de los Santos, as well as political scientists Amaury Justo Duarte and Danilo Clime, academics and writers Carmen Durán, César Cuello, Gerardo Roa Ogando and Milton Valdez.
The general also entered Jorge Radhamés Zorrilla Ozuna, the well-known journalist Ricardo Rojas León, as well as the gentlemen Edwin Areché, Alfonso Trinidad, Julio César Mota Acosta, Luis Manuel Pimentel Castillo, Luis Naut, Luisa Pérez and Reynaldo Ramos Morel.
The UED event took place in the Aída Cartagena Portalatín room of the National Library, with the presence of the director of the institution, the writer Rafael Peralta Romero. The activity was chaired by Avelino Stanley, president of the Dominican Writers Union; by Jenny Montero, vice president, and by Marino Berigüete, general secretary who gave the welcome words.
