We have begun to Build!

After months and months of fundraising, planning, organizing and motivating, we have begun to build the Learning Center. With the help of a wonderfully motivated health volunteer and an education volunteer who is dedicated to children's literacy, Los Blancos will help a Learning Center by the beginning of the School Year!

Filled with books and resources the children of Los Blancos will have a place to access education and get help with homework and assignments from school. The committee in charge of this project is motivated to see their community develop and provide access to school-aged children!

Some of the challenges we have faced including finding land to be donated for this project - one of the main reasons why it took so long. We thought we had found one and didn't end up working out. We then spoke with community leaders and collectively decided that the land next to the current community center is available and up or donation. It worked out perfectly because now the Learning Center will be part of the Community Center. Students, parents and children all have a one-stop-shop for access to resources and information.

With the help and guidance of  Project Las Americas, we have been able to get through the challenges work alongside the community members and make this dream a reality!

Digging out the area to begin building!

The walls are up!

Measuring!

Finishing up to get a roof on it!

In may we held a book fair where all the community members had the opportunity to donate books for the learning center. It also gave us the opportunity to promote the project and have poeple sign up for any role/responsibility they saw fit for them!

This has been a great success so far and I thank the Peace Corps Volutneers and Committee involved for all of their hard work!

Inviting you to be part of the change!

Dear Friends and Family,

We are fortunate enough to live in a place where education is at our disposal. Through public school systems, private institutions, continuing education opportunities and consistent internet access, we have the world's largest library so readily available. Fortunately I have had the opportunity to live in a rural Dominican town where the biggest need is education. I am grateful for it because I have learned the value of having educational resources so accessible; you don't know the answer to a question? No problem. Hop on the internet and "google" it. Feeling creative? Sure. Go to the closest arts & crafts store and get some paintbrushes and canvas. Need to look something up for class or type up a paper? Power on your computer and start typing.

Education is the best way out of poverty. Unfortunately, children, youth and adults in Los Blancos, Dominican Republic do not have the opportunity to access a broad, well rounded education which would then lead to an opportunity out of poverty. This need has been identified by myself as well as other community members and have created a committee to accomplish the goal of building a Community Learning Center which will provide a safe space for children to learn and develop.

 A big issue among teens is drop-out rate from high school. Most students finish up until 8th grade and do not continue. After hundreds of conversations about this topic, I have learned that one of the biggest frustrations among students is lack of computer access. Many of the teachers give assignments which require a computer with basic Word function and sometimes internet. Students often don't have the money to pay for transportation to the closest town to pay for 15 minutes of computer use, and forget about printing costs. This has led to a lot of "0"'s on students' grade record, leading to failure of academic year. The Community Learning Center hopes to have free computer access to all students and will allow them to print documents as well. It will also give a space for them to learn about computer use.

I will be posting information about the community and the project as it progresses. I invite you to read and follow this blog and consider making a donation to this project. Every dollar you donate will go directly to the project and will not be distributed for overhead or administrative costs. Each dollar you donate will be matched by Project Las Americas, an organization that helps and support initiatives that benefit communities around the world to get up and running.

For information on how you can be a part of this change, please click Donate to Community Learning Center Project

For more information on this organization please visit:

                                                  http://www.projectlasamericas.com/

                On behalf of the children, youth and adults from  Los Blancos, thank you for your contribution!

Teaching youth about healthy life practices - a usual spot for meeting and learning