Italian businessman Augusto Reyna has announced that he will finance the construction of four schools in San Cristóbal Province and guarantee a school breakfast program at each for a period of ten years. Reyna is the president of the liquor firm Amaretto Di Saronno and the president of the Italian-Dominican Chamber of Commerce. He also served for ten years as the DR’s honorary consul in Milan, Italy. Reyna told reporters of Hoy and El Nacional newspapers that he had decided to help build and sponsor a school or schools in San Cristóbal after the tragedy which befell the province’s community of Manomatuey during Hurricane Georges. Many members of that community took refuge in the local school and were trapped by flood waters caused by the rains accompanying the hurricane; 37 people died as a result. Reyna told reporters that he had originally thought to rebuild the same school destroyed in that tragedy, but that the Shell oil company had already announced its intention to do so. Education Minister Ligia Melo has publicly commended Mr. Reyna.
