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I have had a request to see if we can help find a Gluten Free home for an Exchange Student from Italy for the 2023-2024 school term.

The mother wrote:
I'm the mother of four girls with celiac disease and the third, Monica, has the dream to study a year in the USA as an exchange student (school year 2023/2024). I'm writing to you because all the Italian agencies for students mobility we have contacted have refused our entry for the year abroad because of Monica's celiac. We have only one option for her which is a "self-placement" that means to find a host family by ourselves. I decided to contact you to see if you can help us to find a host family. This first contact would be just the beginning.

Process for family finding exchange student self-placement is:
Request from Students family for help in locating a Host Family
Potential Host Family sends an email of interest.
Requestor passes information to Students Family
Students Family will give the host name to an Italian Agency that will look for a local partner (local means not only American but also operating in the family's territory - Italy).
American Exchange Student Agency will contact the family. If the family has already been a host family, they may be contacted from the same Agency they were with. The American Agency will explain everything hosting means, regarding rules, expectations, responsibilities, etc.
The two Agency's (Italian and US) together will verify if the matching between the host family and Student can be done.

Mother says: "It may seem strange that I am looking for a family a year before the possible departure, but I prefer to have time and not stress potential host families by doing everything at the last minute and, moreover, once the family has been found, we have to think about the Visa and the school."

Information on Student: Female 16 years old, Speaks Italian, English and Spanish. The third girl in a family of four girls. Interests: Artistic Gymnastics, Music and TV Series.

If you are willing to help this family, please respond to my email and I will proceed to notify the Student's family. This is the second request from a family I have received to help a foreign student find a host family. Normally an Exchange Student Agency would contact us. Covid-19 has made some changes to the processes.
Please let me know if you might help this family.
Thank you.Nancy Kloberdanz

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