A New Building & New Directors for a New School Year!

We have been blessed with a new building! All summer we searched for a new school building as we knew that the one we were in last year was a little expensive for the amount of space it provided. It also was in an area of the community where the water pressure is so low that it doesn't even rise from ground level up into the taps. We found an apartment for a bit less rent money and a bit more space with better access to water, but the downside was that it had no yard area, whereas the one from last year had at least a little. Plus, it was not a house, but an apartment connected to other apartments and on the second floor. Nonetheless, we were going to go for it. 

As time neared to pay the deposit and move, Willy, our first grade teacher, told me of a great house he found in a neighboring community that is a little.. actually quite a bit wealthier, which means better access to water, electricity, cleanliness, and peace in general, not to down talk the barrio by any means. One day during summer camp we left the group to go check it out. While on the way, we passed a yard and building with a playground that used to be a restaurant. I had noticed it before. It had a large "For Rent" sign and a phone number. I pointed it out to Willy. We immediately stared at it and commented at how perfect it would be for the school. I quickly called the number and spoke to the landlord who told us the rent - about $40 more per month than our current building. 

The landlord's wife was next door and would come to open it. Once I got off the phone, we celebrated and expressed our disbelief that a building with a yard so big and beautiful with a playground could cost just $40 more than the building we were previously in. Willy, who had just been talking about the persecution he was facing and health problems he continued to experience, which he believed to be a result of his involvement with the school and effort to advance it despite of jealousy and competition among other community members, something that has unfortunately come up a bit among our teachers and I believe falls under the category of spiritual warfare, said, "I think.... I think it's God that is giving us this building." I (Caitlin) agreed. He didn't mean literally giving it to us to own, but led us to it to use for the school.

After checking out the building, we saw that it didn't have enough space inside to house all of the classrooms, but it had adequate porch space in the front, side, and back, and with the Caribbean climate, this is perfectly fine. I ran back to camp and after it ended and local campers were dismissed, led volunteers, teachers, and the campers who travel to camp with us to check it out. Everyone was pleased with it. The landlord said that someone else was looking at it and deciding about it. After missing out on great houses in such situations before, I shared this with the volunteers and let them know that the deposit money was not yet available from organization funds. Three volunteers generously fronted the money so that we could move in that weekend! So English camp had a new home for the last week! 

We quickly discovered that a big lesson kids would have to learn was playground etiquette. It was heart warming yet also heart breaking to watch teenagers pile up on see saws, swings, and a slide, as though they had never been on a playground in their lives, and maybe some of them had not been. So we did demonstrations of waiting in a line behind the slide, having just one camper on a swing at a time, and taking turns. The first day before we sat them down and talked about this, we were lucky that the most serious injury was a busted lip!

One last announcement is that we have a new morning director and new afternoon director. Wanbert, school co-founder and director since 2010 has stepped down as director and will be working as a teacher in the

morning and afternoon. Pastor Milien has proposed a man named Vladimi as morning director and one of our teachers Met Prosper will be serving as afternoon director. Spreading out the responsibility in this way will undoubtedly cause the staff to work more in a team fashion and will make the overall effort more productive. We had a meeting this morning that ended up lasting 3 hours! After spending the summer with volunteers, teachers have learned a lot about the life of a volunteer and therefore a little more about the base of the organization. We will be visited by a volunteer placement organization the week of August 19th in hopes of establishing a partnership where they send up to 200 volunteers a year throughout the year to work with us! We have high hopes for establishing this partnership as it will be a great opportunity to work with more folks, as well as with the trip fees volunteers will pay, it will be a steady source of income that will hopefully allow us to make some improvements such as an increase in teacher salaries. 
 
 Don't forget - we are starting a new school year and need sponsors for each of our students. We have had around 100 register so far and have 11 sponsored for this school year. School starts September 9th so we need more sponsors before then as it goes much better when we can get books and uniforms before the start of the school year, rather than throughout! It's $100 for the year. E-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org for more info. 

Thank you for your support!

Lots of Meetings!!

Teacher Judith Cadet and her kindergarden/pre-school class.

Throughout the spring, we had a series of meetings with educators in the community of Padre Granero. Some of these educators work in our school, some work in another school that popped up nearby this year, others are parents of students in our school, and others are hopeful employees. Everyone expressed one desire. To work in collaboration toward the cause of providing the best education possible to the children in the community, as well as to illiterate adults. They also expressed the need for educators to stop putting money first when providing social aid, but to put the advancement of the school first. We hope that teacher salaries can increase in the future and their standards of living can improve, but putting money first will not make this happen.

There seems to be a phenomenon that often occurs when a local group of educators receives foreign support. Rather than using the support as a boost to do more than they could've done before, they sometimes put money first and hold back, refusing to do certain basic tasks unless more money is given to them. They aren't motivated to visit the houses of children who are not in school and encourage their parents (who are unschooled themselves and don't always give school the value it deserves) to send these children to school. They are more concerned about their monthly paycheck and don't seem concerned (or at least enough to act) that at the end of each year, attendance dwindles significantly, or some students who register and receive free uniforms don't actually attend school. This group whom which we held a series of meetings largely criticized this phenomenon and spoke passionately about their collective desire to create a school where this is not the case. Educators who act in that way are producing much less fruit than is possible to produce, and they/we want to produce as much fruit as possible.

So in response to this, we began forming a committee to govern the school. This committee is still in its formation stages. I am happy to announce that we have joined forces again with the first educator we ever worked with in Padre Granero, a pioneer of Haitian education in the community, Pastor Milien Dieufils. Also as a result of this series of meetings, the man who has served as the school's director from January 2010 to present, was asked to step down and work as a teacher. If he does not accept peacefully, he will not work with the school at all. It was determined that his practices do not represent the ideal practices stated above, but more so the negative practices that lead to a less fruitful school and effort.

Tomorrow we will begin a volunteer run English immersion camp in the school. This summer we will also execute a soccer team for boys in the community ages 7-14, which boys in our boys' home will also participate in. We are searching for a new school building to rent as the previous director declares too much authority over the current building, and also because we believe we can find a better location with better access to water. Volunteer Chloe Bootstaylor and teacher Willy Previl spent a week and a half walking all around the community and surrounding communities, motivating and informing parents and registering students for next year. Chloe has created student profiles of these students who are ready for sponsorship for the 2013-2014 school year. Remember, this is a $100 per year committment which goes toward the student's uniform, books, and some toward the general functioning of the school. If you would like to sponsor, please e-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org

Lastly, if you are in the Puerto Plata area and would like to volunteer with the English camp this summer, please e-mail cambia.mis.estrellas@gmail.com.

Immigration Control Strikes Padre Granero Again!

This past Sunday morning (December 9, 2012), Puerto Plata's Immigration Control police went into Padre Granero and rounded up Haitians without the proper documentation (passport with visa or residency), put everyone they rounded up in a truck, and took them straight to Haiti. They did the same thing in Padre Granero a little less than a year ago.

Padre Granero, the community where our school is located, has a huge Haitian immigrant population, most of whom are from the Northern Cap Haitian region of Haiti. They took our wonderful teacher Met Oreste the day before he was about to give his exams to finish of the first trimester. They took the Cheridor family who have been in the school since it opened in 2006. And they took many others as well.

The Cheridor family -
excuse the poor quality
of the photo.

Ironically, it was the Cheridor family along with their cousins the Philistin family who pleaded for help with the proper documentation at the house visits we did with teachers and volunteers this past summer. They spoke of their fear of being picked up by Immigration at any time, although at that point their family had been in the country for more than a decade without it happening, but they were fearful that it would. Their children who were born in the Dominican Republic don't even have birth certificates.

This is most definitely a human rights issue that I wish would be properly addressed by organizations that work to achieve human rights where they are lacking. Project Esperanza would be more than willing to partner on such an cffort. The Dominican law states that children born in the Dominican Republic receive Dominican citizenship. However, they put in a loophole specifically designed for Haitians, to keep from giving them citizenship and therefore justify the continued discrimination and abuse. If the parents don't have documentation, (and I am not sure exactly what documentation is and isn't accepted, as far as one parent with a passport, one parent with a passport with a visa, one parent with a Dominican birth certificate, etc.) and I think it varies depending on the hospital or civil office and the decision-maker present at the time, then they do no give the baby a Dominican birth certificate. These babies then spend their lives in the Dominican Republic and are really stateless people. They could be picked up by Immigration and taken to Haiti, a country they have never known, at any time.

And the way that Immigration picks people up is incredibly inhumane. One woman who works with Project Esperanza as a caregiver gave her account of being picked up and sent to Haiti by Immigration while talking about her children and the ages at which they were weaned.

"I weaned Eriverto at a year and Aniverca at 8 months."

"Why did you wean Aniverca at 8 months?"

"Because Immigration took me to Haiti so I had to be separated from her."

"Did you tell them that you had a nursing baby that you would be leaving behind?"

"Yes, they saw her crying on the porch as they took me away."

I think most people who read this would agree that a change is needed. The Dominican Republic may or may not be your country, and the same with Haiti. But regardlessn, we are all God's children and we have responsibilities to do what we can when we know of such difficulties faced by our fellow humans throughout the world. Those who believe in the pursuit of happiness for all on a global scale, please join us in our attempt to make a difference. Here are three ways you can help right now, and we hope that there will be bigger efforts made legally and politically in the future involving larger organizations such as the UN, for example.

1. Oreste (our teacher that was taken on Sunday morning) has been calling asking for money to properly put a year long visa on his passport and come back to Puerto Plata where he can finish his job before the break and then have some sort of a break before the next trimester starts January 7th. This is not even a favor he is asking as he is still owed 3+ months pay backed up from the past two school years, as not enough funds were entering to pay the teachers on time every month. The 3+ months owed to him total $757 US but $300 US would cover his visa and transportation back. We are thankful that we have been able to pay teachers on time each month so far this school year. But as far as paying back the months that were never caught up with, we have no pennies in sight for that purpose at this time.

2. This past August we were inroduced to a lawyer in Santo Domingo (through a Peace Corps function) who helps children who were born in the country, but not granted a birth certificate, to obtain one. He did not give a fixed price per birth certificate he will help produce, but just asked us to contact him when we are ready. He has done this for other organizations in the past, and we hope to work with him in order to provide birth certificates for some of the students in our school. This is something that sponsors may want to inquire about extra for the children they support, as it would truly provide them with more security, should they be a child that falls under these conditions of being born in the Dominican Republic and having no birth certificate.

3. Building more and deeper relationships with families involved in our schools is the first step to change, we believe. It is through relationships that our lives are shared and in learning about each other's lives, we go on to share what we have with one another, whether it be tangible or non-tangible. Our student sponsorship program is set up to facilitate such relationships. We hope that these relationships will grow over the years and produce much fruit. If you would like to sponsor a student in the school, perhaps in the name of a loved one for Christmas, please check out this section of our website.

Thank you for reading and for considering all of this with us!

Sewing Lessons

A local tailor, named Nikola, has begun giving sewing lessons in the school. This has been going on for a few months now. He has around 20 students, almost all of whom are women. Students pay 300 pesos (about $7.65 US) each month and receive lessons for a few hours at a time, four days a week. 

There are three women in the community we would love to be able to help receive these lessons, as they are not able to pay for themselves. These women are Flavi and Viergenie who were mentioned in this earlier post, and Adeline, who is the mother of the baby we served in this post. All three are single mothers who need this extra opportunity to learn a trade and perhaps use it to make their own clothes in the future, or to provide an income for their families. (By the way, as an update on Wendel, Flavi's son who has hydrocephalus, someone has donated towards his spinal tap and we just wait for an answer as to when the anasthesiologist is available to get that done. We have not, however, received any funds for his necessary surgery yet.)

If you are interested in supporting one or more of these women, you can donate one of the ways explained here and just write a note as to what the donation is for. We will be in contact to confirm that the donation is received and used for the intended purpose. 

Nikola is also the tailor who has been working on school uniforms. We have 10 students at the school sponsored so far, so that leaves at least 40 without sponsors. If you would like to sponsor a student for a $100 US annual fee, please also donate one of the ways outlined here, and e-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org. 

Thank you for your support and for reading! 

A New School Building for the New School Year!

Front entrance and porch.

We are happy to announce that we have moved into a new school building! The building we were in previously had been undergoing slow construction for almost a year and did not seem to be ending in the near future. The doors and windows were not secure because of this and there were many class interruptions, so we decided to change buildings. We also have had more students register this year than in the past, and therefore needed more space. The new building we are in is in much better condition and also has a small, fenced in backyard for recess. 

Switching buildings caused us to delay the school opening one week. We pushed back the first day of school from Monday, September 3^rd to Monday, September 10^th. The first few days of school, students have been trickling in, finding the new building and coming unprepared, as is often the case here, unfortunately. On Wednesday, enough students arrived so that class was held. Things will pick up from here. 

6 students have been sponsored so far this year, with about 60 left still needing sponsors.(The number of students still needing sponsors will become more accurate within the first few weeks of school as we see who attends regularly.) Below are some more pictures of the new school building. 

Large classroom

Backyard area

Kitchen

Classroom

Classroom

There is one classroom that is not pictured which we have arranged on the car port. I want to remind readers that in addition to student sponsors, we are seeking groups or individuals that would like to support teachers monthly, taking on the responsibility of the teachers' pay, much as a church would support a missionary abroad. We believe that investing in a local teacher is just as, if not more worthy than investments that send missionaries abroad, since you are supporting someone who faces difficulties finding work otherwise and who has an advantage at reaching the community, being from the community him or herself. Contact Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org to sponsor a teacher or student. 

In the next post, we will tell about a new sewing class that began in the school this summer and continues today, led by a local tailor with the participation of about 20 community members, the majority of whom are women. Thanks for reading!

A Look into Some Lives

School begins in two weeks and we are rushing to get children sponsored and to purchase books and uniforms. We have spent weeks visiting the houses of children, meeting with parents, answering questions, creating student profiles, taking family pictures, and registering kids for school. Last year 21 of our students were able to be sponsored. This year we hope to get many more sponsored. Please e-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org if you are interested. We would also like to rent a new building to hold school in as the current one has been undergoing interruptive construction for months now, and it doesn’t appear that it will be finished anytime soon. It is also quite small for the amount of kids that have registered so far this year. So we have quite a lot of work to do in these next two weeks, and in the first few weeks of school as well. 

While we don’t have a specific program for widowed mothers or young single mothers, we have always lent a helping hand to women and their infants in this situation in the communities where we have our grassroots schools. This blog post talks about one case in Padre Granero we helped out with a few years ago. Here are two more mothers pleaing for help. If this touches your heart and you would specifically like to support them, please contact us. 

This is Flavi (left) with her son Wendel (middle) and friend Mari. They are new to the Padre Granero community. They have been having an extremely hard time as they have no family here but were led by someone called a passer who helps people cross the border and make it to safety, and were dropped off in Padre Granero. They made the trip over from Gonaives, Haiti to search for help for Wendel who is developmentally behind and has an oversized head. Flavi's husband recently died of sickness in Gonaives. She left two older kids with friends (she says she has no family) and brought Wendel. She is also about 8 months pregnant and is expecting a girl. Mari's husband died in a flood in Gonaives a few years ago, along with many other people, unfortunately, and her family has suffered since. She left two of her children at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, hoping they will be adopted, and has one more with a friend in Gonaives. 

We have helped these ladies out with some food items, a few outfits for Wendel, and two months of rent so far. As we were going to help with the purchase of some things to sell, such as avacados and bananas, Mari, the one who would be selling, had to run to care for her sick family member. I'm assuming it is her child but was not told specifically who it is and did not ask. So Flavi is now alone in Padre Granero with Wendel, almost due to have a baby. We have taken Wendel to a nearby clinic called Centro Medico Cabarete and the CT scan showed that he has hydrocephalus. He will need a spinal tap to make sure he has no current infections (around $80 US), and then a surgery (between $1,000 and $2,000 US) where a shunt is inserted into his brain to then drain the extra fluid into another part of his body, I believe the abdomen. These prices are reduced because Centro Medico Cabarete has a foundation that can receive some donated surgical products and donate their services as well. If you can help, please let us know, as this is life and death for Wendel. 

This is Viergenie and her baby boy Elow. Viergenie is 16 and Elow is 5 months. She came to join her mother in Padre Granero, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic about two years ago and ended up with Elow, abandoned by the father. Her mother has four other children and is unable to help out much with this new addition to the family. Therefore, as we went around registering students and creating the profiles, they asked that we search for help for Viergenie. Teenage mothers are all over the world, but when one has absolutely no means to bring in an income other than perhaps prostitution, we would hope to be able to encourage another way to provide for one's child. We have not yet begun a jewelry program in Padre Granero as we have in another community where we have a grassroots school, but it would be great to in the near future. Also, we have begun offering sewing classes in the school and hope to get an additional machine (we have found a used one for $85 US) to further this opportunity for community members. These are more ways that the school is used to educate and empower community members rather than just provide the classic education for youth. 

We hope that you will join us in supporting the Institution for the Improvement of Life Through Education. Thank you for reading! 

Discussing and Planning for Next Year

The school year ended fairly smoothly with the Institute of the Improvement of Life Through Education. 48 students finished the year by completing their final exams and we are currently preparing to hand out report cards. A few students moved away or stopped attending school throughout the year, unfortunately. The reason why we have not yet set a date for this meeting is that there is lots of discussion taking place regarding plans for next year. Our summer volunteers have been leading educational activities for students in the school in the afternoons and at the end of some of these activities, we visit the houses and parents of children. Parents have been reporting information about the past school year that we had not heard before, and they have been reporting it consistently. So we will have to make changes accordingly, and it seems as though these changes should be made before a report card meeting occurs so that everyone can be informed at that time. We're trying to work things out as quickly as possible. 

One point of discussion is how student sponsorship funds should be allocated. For the 2011-2012 school year, 21 students were sponsored. Sponsors donated $100 for the year to sponsor their student and received a student profile complete with a family photo in return. The funds went toward a uniform and set of books for each student, with some left over to go toward the monthly costs of running the school including paying rent on the building, cleaning supplies, and paying teachers. Somehow we purchased books and uniforms for much more than just the 21 sponsored students, not wanting to make the opportunity available only to those 21, but to be fair among all students. This year we are trying to get started earlier and have these students re-spondered, as well as find sponsors for those who were never sponsored. Last year we were purchasing books and uniforms throughout the entire year. This year we hope to have all of this done before the year begins, or within the first month of school. If you make a donation of $100, we will contact you with your student sponsorship information and keep you updated throughout the year. 

It is our desire that the sponsorship funds go toward uniforms, books, and some sort of food at the school. Parents have expressed that their most pressing need is proper documentation for children and for themselves, as all of the students in the schools we serve are living in the country illegally. In January, I believe, Immigration officers broke into houses in the community of Padre Granero at 4am and hauled people into a truck, then took them to Haiti. One of the families in our school was separated as the mother and some children were taken, but other children were left behind. This doesn't happen often, but when it does, it is very unorganized and inhumane in this way. Of course, the situation of illegal immigration would be almost completely under control if Immigration guards at the border were not corrupt and did not accept bribes. I have never heard of a guard not accepting a few hundred pesos to let someone pass. Nonetheless, you are only safe when you have your proper documentation. This is the request that parents have been making. I have let them know that this would cost more than $100 per student per year and that our best bet is to develop strong relationships with sponsors of the students and share this situation with them. Maybe one day we can collaboratively help these families to obtain legitimate documentation so that they can live legitimate lives in the Dominican Republic. 

One last bit of drama in the community is that there is a rumor that a new school is opening that will offer all that we have been able to provide and more. This rumor sprouts from a young woman in Montreal who once pretended to be interested in financially supporting the school. In the end, she wound up meddling in the school and community, attempting to create division. It is all very strange and out of the ordinary but true nonetheless. Now she takes pictures of students from the Institution of the Improvement of Life Through Education and claims on her blog that they will attend her school next year. However, I think she is playing a game more than anything as she used to collect funds to support a school in Africa but apparently mishandled the money on several occasions, leaving many untrusting. 

It is sad that there are people who like to toy with the most vulnerable communities, but it is true. At a parent, teacher meeting last Friday, I told parents to not pay attention to such rumors about a different and better school opening. I let them know that I have more insight into the source of the rumors (as they are highly disconnected from the Internet and non-profit world), and that these were games that were being played. You should believe something when you see it. Our school has finished its sixth year, about to begin its seventh, and things improve every year. And we aren't going anywhere!