Donating material aid is one way. Equipment that we in Vermont consider obsolete can be put to good use by our counterparts in "Port". A former UVM student carried donated computers to "Port" and started a computer training school there that has graduated many students.

Cultural exchange is another. Vermonters visiting Puerto Cabezas have included artists, actors, educators, baseball players, carpenters, plumbers, firemen,  and an Abenaki storyteller. Visiters from Puerto Cabezas have included musicians, municipal workers, police and fire officials, agricultural students, drug counselors, indigenous leaders, and most recently young baseball players.

    Burlington's Sister City Program offers a valuable opportunity for its residents. People have much to gain from involvement with this unique 24-year relationship, and we invite interested persons to become involved. Anyone is guaranteed to be enriched by the experience of meeting your "sister" residents from this very interesting multicultural autonomous region of Nicaragua.

    For more information keep visiting our web site <www.uvm.edu/sistercity> 
or send us an e-mail address asking to be put on our mailing list.
    

Among the Sister City's ongoing relationships with Bilwi is the that of the firefighters from both communities. Since the mid 1990s the Burlington Fire Department has donated decommissioned equipment to the Sister City Program for transport to the fire department in Puerto Cabezas. The Sister City Program considers the relationship between our two fire departments a top priority.  In the spring of 2001 the Sister City Program shipped several tons of equipment to the fire department in "Port", and Captain Jim Hendry obtained a decommissioned firetruck from the Salisbury Fire Department. The Sister City Program raised funds to truck the truck from Burlington to Miami, and in July 2003 the truck was shipped  from Miami to the fire department in Puerto Cabezas.