"Education is the basic pathway out of poverty"

At the end of February Paul and I were able to visit the DREAM Project and the Mustard Seed Community in the Dominican Republic.

At the DREAM Project we were able to hand over a donation as part of St Peters Church's tithe towards the running cost of the work that DREAM does in the local schools around Cabarete. We were also able to revisit some of the schools we had visited 2 years earlier to see the work that has been done since and what is happening today. The Cadin School is where St Peters school helped by paying for some bookshelves for the library. Paul and I joined in anEnglish language class by singing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes to the children who joined in and then sang a song to us in Spanish.

At the La Libertad pre-school we were able to see the new garden that's been created to help the children to learn about growing plants, and this also provides them with a small income as they sell the produce to the local community which helps to pay for the security man. There are 24 children here in the morning and 14 in the afternoon. They pay £1 a month which pays the teachers salary.

From there we travelled to the other side of Cabarete where we saw the newly acquired plot of land where DREAM's new project, a teacher training centre and pre-school, is to be built. As Tricia Suriel, the Director, says in her latest newsletter, "Some people think that poor children do not need the same sort of schools as rich children. Some people think that poverty is not their problem or that the burden is too big. I say let's pick up the pace."

Paul and I first visited Immanuel, the Mustard Seed Community orphanage near Puerto Plata, last year while Wayne and Kerry Grant with the physically and mentally disabled children they look after, were living in temporary accommodation. We were also taken to see the new accommodation being modified and added to, ready for them to move into. That move took place at the beginning of this year [2006] with a grand opening early in February.

Knowing that they had a long 'wish list' for the new home we asked St Peters if they would be willing to help and in the end over £1600 was raised to pay off a loan for a piece of land they had bought, food, medicines and a treat for the children. Wayne and Kerry were delighted with the donation and plan to give the children a party soon. It was wonderful to visit the home because the shell of the building that we had seen on our first visit has been turned into a super new home for the 12 children with staff quarters, a therapy room, dining room, lounge, kitchen and 2 dormitories with bathroooms. A computer room has been installed and this  will benefit the school in the village and also the home as the local community becomes involved.

As always there is so much more that can be done.

If you would like to help financially with one or both of these projects, or would like to spend some time working with the projects in the Dominican Republic then please be in touch with me or Paul. We are both available under the vicars eMail address. For more information see the Mustard Seed and the DREAM links on our Links page.

Annette Knight