Dominica Orphanage - Latest News

May 20: Well I took George and Lisa Christacos to meet Dominica and the children last week and they absolutely love and admire them all. We had lunch with the 80 children on the program on Friday, and Saturday a party in the new park (land donated by George C.) with 100 children.

See photos at this link, and Seb is preparing another slide show with my photos. I was impressed by the garden doing well, and the new swings and the future storage room which Dominica wants to have a section for sick children so they can lie down. The current nursery holds only 1 bed.

April 16: Dominica was given a 1992 van to carry the children around by Tom Duffield of Prestige Car Rental, in La Romana. It sits 7 comfortably (which means 10 or 12 kids!!). Dominica has a smile of deep gratitude when she received the keys. It has been a dream of hers for yearsssssssssssssss! Thank you Jean for making this happen. And she still needs a bus to take the children to school, choir practice etc... They were 21 teenagers this years, and probably double that number in September!

Voluntourism
By Bonnie Walling

Funjet program is avatar of new form of travel combining vacation and volunteer work

Funjet Vacations marketing analyst John Suhar saidhis recent trip to help deliver supplies to the Dominica Orphanage in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic “opened my eyes to a new concept of travel, a form of travel that would combine exploring a destination with volunteer work on behalf of the local communities and ecosystems.”

Suhar was chosen to make the trip in an essay competition among Funjet employees. The company is sponsoring the Dominica Orphanage, which provides and coordinates housing for abandoned and orphaned children. Every evening, children are placed in foster homes and return to the orphanage in the morning to wash and dress for school.

The associated Dominica School provides meals and clothing to all its students and is currently serving 310 children in pre-kindergarten through seventh grade. According to a Funjet spokesperson, it is ranked among the top five schools in the Dominican Republic and has a waiting list.

Funjet Vacations collected 14 boxes of various clothing and personal items for the children, who range in age from two to 17, including tennis shoes, sandals and school supplies. In addition, the company purchased two months of food for the orphanage and two desktop computers to add to its computer lab.

Employees interested in making the trip were then invited to submit an essay on “What is the value of having employees support an orphanage in the Dominican Republic?”

Suhar said he decided to participate because “I believe it is my responsibility to educate myself on global social inequities and embrace any opportunities to support those in need. I knew that through this voluntary effort, I would be able to support an orphanage while learning about the culture and history of one of our destinations.”

In his essay, Suhar said, “...We are committed to enhancing the lives of others, whether we are providing leisure travel opportunities or supporting a humanitarian effort.”

Suhar also wrote, “The real goal would be to positively affect the lives of the children, create opportunities for improved living, unite communities and provide everyday necessities.”

He was selected to go along with the Funjet delegation, which delivered the items via charter air out of Milwaukee — site of the company’s headquarters — to Punta Cana. Funjet Vacations destination service company VIP Travel Services assisted with the transportation to Santo Domingo.

It was Suhar’s first trip to the Dominican Republic. “Prior to this trip, I had only read or saw photos about the country,” he said.

“The Dominicans are some of the most hospitable and genuine people I have ever met. Whether I was playing soccer with locals at the hotel or interacting with the kids of the orphanage, everyone was in high spirits and extremely gregarious.”

The orphanage itself, he said, was a moving experience. “As we toured the orphanage, stories of cooperation and the importance of education were abundant.”

He added, “A true sense of camaraderie has been developed among the children. The kids have established a familial atmosphere and they keep a positive outlook on life and stay focused on their goals.

“One of the orphanage’s primary goals is self-dependence. In an example of this, I saw children of the orphanage tending to a garden near the classroom.”

However, he said that the current system is working as well as it is now because there are enough sponsors and foster families to meet current needs, but that might become a problem if demand increases in the future.

“As they continue to gain requests to add children to the meal plan or the classroom setting, it is evident that they are in need of additional sponsors and travelers willing to donate their time or money,” he said. Agents interested in donating to the orphanage can visit www.DominicaOrphanage.com.

Thank you for your phone-call last night. It is so good and comforting to receive news from you and remember my birthday!.

We need you to be in the same page as we are here regarding our main needs in sustaining our orphanage/school. It is necessary that supporters interested in our project know what are our current needs to reach out to all our humble children and teens.

We now have a church in Canada and Dallas willing to assist us with shoes and clothing during the school year. We pray for their willingness and kindness.

We are not capable of receiving donations for new projects until we have the current needs covered. What we have implemented and are doing everyday for our school and orphanage is a lot above what we are capable of. We are in the process of designing a new and small program for next school year. We feel it is more important and beneficial for the kids to receive less in long term projects that don't get funded and to receive instead for short term projects. We need some commitments on a monthly basis to give our children, teachers and staff a solid ground to stand upon. We want to eliminate the loans situation so we can maintain the yearly operation of the orphanage. $3 to $4,000 monthly commitment would do wonder! The list of goals are under Wish List.

All of these are our current activities or expenses which we deal with on a daily basis. We would prefer to have all these projects covered before starting a new one. After that we can create or add new things. Blessings to you and your continuous support -

Dominica"

"Blue House Effect had a marvelous trip in early Feb. with 23 volunteers. A group did workshops with the "women in crisis" group along with taking family pictures and giving them so they would have for their own homes.

We built as much of a storage area as we could and Miguel and Tuto finished it...it was to be a wooden building 12' x 12' but as our motto is "change the plan, keep the faith" we changed to a concrete block 18' x 30' building that can have multiple uses.

We built 3 compost areas and 10 square meter vegetable gardens and gave lessons in the care and maintenance.....we had team members building some playground equipment and benches and shelves for the storage area.....we had teacher gatherings led by Val Morrison who heads the summer teacher enrichment workshops.

We also took time for the team to "be" with the children on 3 afternoons for programming and fun as well as a church service on the Sunday. We donated and set up 6 laptop computers. We gave away many pairs of shoes, clothing, hygiene packs and other gifts to the children and women in the community. All in all we took down over 3,000 lbs.

The time goes so very quickly and our hearts grow beyond our wildest imagining. The joy that the children bring and give to us we embrace and bring home to hold us until our next time with them.....

We have a group going again Aug. 7 - 15 for the teacher workshops and other minor jobs." Allana

March 12 07: "Dear Friends of the Dominica Orphanage, Today, we have eight of our little children having umbilical hernia surgeries:

Jose Edwardo Perez, age 10; Michael Valdez, age 10, Lewkis Dahiana Lara, age 3, Lara Encarnacion, age 7 & Darlenys, age 4.
Dr. Foley and a staff of sixteen have arrived from Louisville, Kentucky, and will be performing this corrective surgery for the children, gratis.

The appointments will take the whole day. The children arrive at our house here in the Dominican on Sunday and will stay until Tuesday when they will return to the orphanage.

Please keep their little bodies and souls in your prayers today. Dr. Foley checked each one yesterday in preparation for the procedures today. He said that each year he sees more than 1,500 children thru his practice and he had never experienced such a group of beautiful and well behaved children.

Last evening the church sponsoring this medical missionary team held a prayer service for all the children having surgeries here this week. Today Gayle Shulte will hold a prayer vigil for the little ones with the children at the Dominica School. We would appreciate you participating in the healing of the children with your prayers also. Thank you in advance for your support. With love and gratitude"
Jean Dye

February:25: Nice visit from 5 persons from Mark Travel who brought lots of goodies and got to spend 4 hours with the children. Everybody was thrilled.
And now Nekhondi Adams arrived with her mother and 2 friends and 8 full bags of goodies. What a wonderful dedicated medical student on her 3rd visit who is looking for a dominican doctor to sponsor her for her internship!

February 14 & 8: we added LOTS of photos and a few more to come. Enjoy them here As you can see, all the Children had a fabulous Christmas eve & day and 3 kings day too. And a few lucky got the grand treatment.
"Good news here. The children got their vaccines for hepatitis. The nurse and psychologist brought a group of children to a private hospital and they got their first shot. Please, extend our gratitude to Jean Dye and The Blue House Effect (Allana Rose) who donated the funds for it. Thank you also to Ms. Allana and her group who taught our children about garden & crops.

They also worked with our Circle of Women in Crisis and lifted their souls, as the women were able to make a lot of manual things in order to sell them and make some money for their families.
Thank you also to Jean Dye who worked a whole year to obtain rice (200 lbs/month for 10 months) from the Price Charities for our children, and milk from "Gleaning fro the World". Everything helps and milk will cover our feeding program for three months.
Thanks also to Andy Weiss and his friends who purchased 500 pounds of rice, beans, oil, cookies, flour, etc. for the children. It is a blessing as Alain who helped so generously for 2 years is not able anymore to continue his $1300 commitment, though his son in law continues with his $500/month.
While at it, thank You Kris, Phyllis, Donna, Jessica and the Dye's for your $2,100 donation in January. It helped with feeding the kids and emergency medical care. Blessings. Dominica"

Also PB & Jean Dye joined 50+ children at the park downtown for an afternoon of fun and goodies -offered by the owners of Mark Travel Agency in Milwaukee. They are coming back February 24 with 15 boxes of presents gathered by their employees for our children. I love this initiative.

Major concern now for Jean and Dominica is to have 10 children operated by a doctor for their belly buttons etc.

January 20 2007

Thank your for all your precious help with our orphanage/school here. We fixed some computers, put back light to the jeep used for the multiple needs of our orphanage/school. The belt also was not running correctly and we got a new one. The rest of the funds went for sugar, beans and cereal. Please know that we are so pleased for you being a good soul and thinking about your little brothers and sisters here in the Dominican Republic. If you have friend, be aware that Mr. Alain seems to have cut his $1,300/month which means that about 50 children may have their three meals cut. May the Lord always bless your heart and your loved ones. In God's service, " Dominica

Yes i am finally back and starting to sort through the 700+ pictures I took. Let's start with the opening of the park. It is just beautiful as you can see. Kids are in awe and don't dare to move. But thanks to PB and Jean Dye, we had a christening on 3 Kings Day, January 6 with 225 children eating chicken and fries and a home made cake by Jean. Wow.

And presents to everyone on top of that. Only missing Mr. George! But we can have another party there when he is ready to come! Dominica transformed a dream into reality in less than 50 days. Bravo!
Then there was a week at a 4**** hotel on the beach for 3 kids and myself. Then 1 week at Mike for 8 then 12 children. We enjoyed that too!

Go to photos section as I added LOTS of photos. All in all Children had a fabulous Christmas eve & day and 3 kings day too.

Dec 3: "I want to give some credit to the Shelbie family from Canada, Jihad, Almal and their three boys who are gifting our Christmas dinner Eve with toys for all the children. These angels already helped us with the roof of the orphanage which was leaking water inside the dinning area. Three years ago he also donated the windows of this building. We were all expecting his family to share with all our children this special Christmas dinner as they did two years ago but will have them instead in our thoughts and prayers.

I personally need to thank the big Coleman family: husbands and wives, mama and papa for their contribution to make our new park a reality (any day now), after Mr. George Christacos gifted us $7,000 to buy the piece of land adjacent to our school. It really is a fabulous gift for our children this Christmas!!! Little by little the Universe is touching special beings to help us do our work in the Dominican Republic.

We still need help as our program has accepted 50 more children who were on a waiting list for more than two years. Our expenses are of course higher, plus the different skill classes held during the afternoon and evenings. A good group of children have become adolescents and therefore we need to give them skills to face the outside world.

Because I was hunger and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, Sick and you visited me, thirsty and you give me water." Domínica

Dec 1st: The 12 feet high wall of the 305 m2 is practically done, except that part with the new lot for sale 205 m2 at $2,000 (+ closing cost and wall). And it needs polish etc. Dominica would need this donation very soon in order to close all the walls at once. Since there is a house half built on it, she would like to finish that house and use it to keep material/ clothes etc safe. The 14 trucks of yellow sand are already in. She said it looks great and BIG. It will be all finish when I come on the 20th! Hurray - Marie

Voluntourism By Bonnie Walling

Voluntourism
By Bonnie Walling