Fernandez heads Funglode Awards ceremony

Santo Domingo. – President Leonel Fernandez headed the Funglode (Global Foundation Democracy and Development) 2011 Awards ceremony Wednesday night, in the categories poetry, essay, story, journalism, photography and documentary.

FUNGLODE executive director Herrera Marco, and Training and Culture Center director Catherine Florentino coordinated the selections for the prizes, for which Culture minister Jose Rafael Lantigua lauded Fernandez for their importance and in their sixth year.

The winners received statuettes for the first three places all the categories, including cash prizes from 50,000 to 100,000 pesos.

The “Rafael Herrera” prize in journalism went to Mariela Mejía Gil, of Diario Libre, for her several reports on minors in drug trafficking, while second place went to Leissy Torres of newspaper El Dia, for her reports on the drama of reaching old age in the Dominican Republic.