WELCOME P.E.I.

We had our first visitors this week.  Tammy and Chris arrived from P.E.I, Canada to volunteer at the Centre.  Tammy very graciously donated the commission from her Jewelery business in Canada to our craft program.  She's been Dominicanada's biggest fan, always so supportive, and brought along all the supplies below collected by all her friends and family back in Canada.  All the material will be used to make clothes for our puppet program.  Tammy and Chris wanted to make sure all little bellies were full while they were here, and so treated all the kids to a hot meal for lunch.  They have started the Friday Food drive, and will be sponsoring a hot meal the last Friday of each month for the kids.  Thank you so much Tammy, Chris and family.

 

 

ARTS AND CRAFTS - MASKS

Our first classes were great!  Happy cheerful kids doing what they do best.....having fun!  We started with arts and crafts making colourful masks.  The children learned how to paper mache over a plastic kitchen bowl to form the shape of the mask.  It didn't take long for them to dry in the Caribbean sun.  Then the painting began, lots of different patterns, sparkles and feathers.  The end result, our little masked marvels below.  Thank you Christiane for your great craft classes.

P.E.I. AND ENGLEHART ROCK!

Thanks to all of our friends in P.E.I. and Englehart, Canada, we were able to launch our Dominicanada program this week.  We are up and running.  Each child received their own special box with stationery supplies and an official Dominicanada Club name tag.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to all.

SPONSORSHIP

Cousins Jerlina and Anibel are just 2 of the 60 children that require sponsorship at our Dominicanada Youth Development Centre.  You can read about their families to the right.  If you would like to contribute to our sponsorship program, a donation of just $35.00 a month, literally $1.00 a day, sponsors a child.

Your donation helps pay for the costs of a child attending school, school supplies, school uniforms, medicine, family support, and overall costs of running the Youth Development Centre.  The photos of their neighbourhood below explain their living conditions.  A donation will mean the difference between a child having to spend the day in these conditions, or bringing the kids to our safe haven at the Dominicanada Youth Development Centre.  Sponsorship or one time donations can be made through the paypal button on this blog. Your support will make a difference.  Together we can!

COMMUNITY LEADER

Thanks to Judy Warrington and Powertrips Inc., Hilda, was rewarded for her 25 years of hard working service with new gates on all the doors of the school, and a new roof for her home across the street from the school.  For 25 years now, Hilda has been determined to keep her school open to educate children, she is a wonderful teacher, a community leader and so deserves this beautiful gift from Judy and her group.

EXTREME MAKEOVER - HAY LUZ!

Yes we have light......the new inverter was installed today so we are able to have electricity 24/7.  The electricity usually only comes on every other day for a few hours in Playa Oeste.  The inverter runs on 4 batteries that generate power when there is no electricity.  Meaning the kids will have lights and fans all the time now.  Thanks to Chip and Stan for all the installation and for making the security cages.  Fans are up, bathroom plumbing completely installed, bathroom door repaired, entire electric circuit repaired, and bathroom painted.  See the before and after photos below. A big thank you to everyone at the Good Shepherd Church in Englehart for your most generous donation.

MOBILITY

 This is Thomas Dominguez.  He lost his leg in an accident but that doesn't stop him from working everyday.  You would think with the loss of a limb, one would have a desk job....not Thomas.  He is on the beach each morning at 6 am.  He makes his way down a steep hill of sand with his crutches to rake and clean the beach shore line along with the city works team.  I see him every morning, and thought he deserved the wheelchair, that the Balm Beach gang donated, most of all.  So Thomas happily accepted the wheelchair and told me he was thrilled to be mobile, and would now be able to boot around the La Sirena shopping centre!

SUITCASE BED

Little did we know, that some of the suitcases that are being donated to transport our donated supplies, are also being used in the community.  Moms are splitting the hard cover suitcases in half and using both sides for baby beds.

CONANI CLINIC

We shared our medical donations with the clinic at the Conani School.  The Dr. and nurses were all very happy to receive supplies from our Canadian supporters.  They are in desperate need of medical supplies at the clinic and are always happy when we have enough to go around.