DR Volunteer Trip Summary

Published on by shahkarim

 

We spent a week this summer volunteering as a family with a children’s education nonprofit in the town of Monte Cristi, in the Dominican Republic. This is a summary of that trip.

The non-profit we worked with was Outreach360, which we chose because they met a number of criteria :

  • Established track record (these guys have been operating in the region for over a decade)
  • Family oriented programs that can easily incorporate younger children, including our 6yo.
  • Work that involves the betterment of conditions for children.
  • Education as the central theme.

Our flight arrived in Santiago around 3am on Saturday, and we chose to get some sleep at the Hodelpa airport hotel until 1pm Saturday when we were met by an O360 long-term volunteer, Catherine, who had come to take us to Monte Cristi, along with 3 other volunteers who had also arrived that day (Mark & Theresa, and Joyce).

The ride out took about 3 hours, and eventually we arrived in the dusty, arrid northwest coastal highlands of Monte Cristi.

In addition to Team Karim + Mark&Theresa + Joyce, there were about 12 longer term volunteers there who were part of a multi-week stint. The Manolo Tavarez center, where all the volunteers were housed for the week, was rounded out by 4 full-time O360 staff members.

Here is a view of the volunteer center :
After arrival, we spent the rest of Saturday afternoon getting acquainted with our quarters (we were placed in a small casita across the street from the main center – pretty spartan bunk-bed style arrangements, but perfectly functional) and given a quick tour of the surroundings – Lilo’s, the local grocery store, the Farmacía, etc.

Sunday was orientation, where one of the leaders went over the basic structure of the week. The program for the children runs Monday – Friday, but short-term (1 wk) volunteers work only Monday-Thursday, leaving Friday as a “Culture day” – more on that later. We also spent Sunday afternoon scouring the neighborhood handing out fliers advertising the coming week’s program, and trying to get children to come.

During the summer, Outreach360 operates as a “campamento” – essentially a summer camp-style learning environment for the children. There are 2 sessions each day (morning and afternoon), with average attendance running anywhere between 15-25 children at each.

The campamento itself was held a 15 minute walk away from the O360 house, at a building in the Solomon Jorge neighborhood.

Each day’s session basically started and ended with “Circulo”, where we gathered under a large orange tent and sang camp-style songs (our kids are still singing them – very catchy) in a large circle with the children from the neighborhood who came to camp that day.
The students were divided into 4 “teams” complete with names (ours for the week were Los Pulpos Misteriosos, Los Piratas, Las Estrellas Del Mar, and Los Tiburones) with corresponding team chants.

Each team had volunteers as group leaders (our eldest 2 acted as group leaders for Los Piratas, and Estrellas Del Mar) who led them through 4 classrooms : Health, Spanish/Literacy, English, and Environment. Here Arman is getting Los Piratas ready for lessons.

 

 

I was one of 2 instructors for the Spanish/literacy classroom, and Samina was one of 3 instructors for the Environment classroom.

Reviewing the alphabet.

Samina taking a break at the Environment station.

 

 

 

 

 

     Sarina and Domini became fast friends.

Safiya was a floater, and also performed a critical role in playing with the kids during recess.

Safiya also happened to have her birthday on wednesday, and got no less than 7 Happy birthday songs sang to her by the staff and/or children, in both english and spanish. Lucky kid indeed.

On Friday (culture day) we went to Dajabón, which is a town on the DR-Haiti border about 1 hour from Monte Cristi. The goal was to experience the Haitian market, where literally thousands of Haitians cross the border every week to sell anything from produce, clothing, cigars, and countless other variety of goods. Truly an eye opener.

Dominican guards looking on as Haitian vendors enter the market. The blue gates are the border, and we were not allowed to cross into Haiti.
This is a trip we had been looking forward to for a while, and once it came the week flew by – it was a lot of hard work, and thoroughly satisfying to engage with these children in a real tangible way. Definitely something we would love to do again some day.
A picture taken in front of El Morro, with the other 3 volunteers that were there during the week with us – the wonderful Mark, Theresa, and Joyce.

 

 

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