Suriname is located in South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean in the North, British Guyana in the West, French Guiana in the East and Brazil in the South. The capital is Paramaribo and has approximately 250.000 inhabitants.

The entire country has about 500.000 inhabitants. This is a very small population for a country that measures almost 164.000 sq. kilometers. The climate is tropical and the temperatures fluctuate between 18°C and 35°C.

The official language is Dutch, but most people speak good English. The common language is “Sranan Tongo” and other spoken languages in Suriname are Sarnami-Hindi, Javanese (Indonesian), and various Indigenous, Maroon and Chinese languages.

Suriname has a multiracial population with a diversity of cultural expressions. Its original inhabitants were the Amerindians. The ethnic variety was created in the colonial period, in which Africans were shipped from their countries to work as slaves on the Surinamese plantations.

At the beginning Jews, Lebanese and Europeans settled down who started with more than 300 plantations. After the abolition of slavery, the Hindustani, Javanese and Chinese were lured into the colony to work as contract laborers.

Because of the integration between the various ethnic groups, lots of mixed types developed, the so called “melting pots” or “dogla’s”.

Suriname became independent from the Netherlands on November 25th in 1975.

Since June 2000, Suriname has been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List because of its very unique monumental buildings and architecture.

The color symbolic of the Surinamese flag:
Green for fruitfulness and hope
White for freedom
Red for renewal, love and progress
The yellow (golden) star stands for unity, sacrifice, unanimity and a golden future..