French Guyana is characterized by its cultural and linguistic diversity, which, in educational circles, is often considered as an obstacle to development. In the light of experiments in bilingual education conducted in neighboring Brazil, a similar project has been set up in French Guyana. It aims at providing school teachers with bilingual 'mediators', generally umemployed youngsters, who are able to address the pupils in their various native languages and to help them acquiring a second language. In order to assist these 'bilingual mediators' in their new tasks the project aims at giving them a proper linguistic and pedagogical education.