Remarks to the ’06 New Horizons Media Luncheon
January 19, 2006

Welcome to this lunch and discussion about New Horizons  2006.

I hope you already know about the New Horizons program,  in which U.S. and Salvadoran doctors and soldiers work side by side on humanitarian construction projects and medical treatment exercises known as MEDRETEs.   These joint exercises train our troops and strengthen our official,  professonal, and personal ties.

During the past thirteen years, ten New Horizons teams have constructed schools, clinics, community centers, bridges, and wells for the benefit of communities all over El Salvador.  In addition, MEDRETE medical teams have given treatment to hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans, and some of them have offered veterinary services as well.

In our two years here, my wife, Dee Dee, and I have had the pleasure of visiting some of the towns who have benefited from New Horizons.  We have talked to the soldiers and doctors and, more exciting still, with the adults and children who now have schools or community centers or who have gotten free medical care.  The gratitude expressed on their faces makes us proud of what we – North Americans and Salvadorans – have done together.   I know that the tenth joint exercise, New Horizons 2006, will contribute in equal fashion to the quality of life of many people in the Department of Morazán. 

Dear friends from the media, I firmly believe that New Horizons 2006 will generate human-interest stories that will capture the attention of your readers, listeners, and viewers.  I hope you seek those stories out.  I guarantee that the Embassy will be at your service to facilitate access for the press to the project sites.

Thank you very much.