Help spread education !: A bit about Los Blancos

Los Blancos is a semi-rural town in the southern region, Barahona, of the Dominican Republic. It is home to about 3,000 inhabitants and its only access to it is one main road that follows the coastline. The town itself is on the foothills of a mountain, making agriculture the most viable option for economy. Los Blancos focuses on coffee growing and has invested a lot of time and organizational help on this industry. About 5 years ago all the coffee farms were infested with a parasite and the economy of Los Blancos has been severely affected. Because of this, many children are now put to work to make-up for the crops lost, leaving a lot of the children without time to attend school.

Main road in Los Blancos

The community has one Escuela Basica (grade school) which currently educates about 600 kids. The school has 4 classrooms for pre kindergarten through 8th grade and each classroom has 35-40 students of varying ages. Currently, the children either go from 8 am until 12pm or from 2pm until 6pm, depending on which grade you are in. There is no resource room or library in the school as there is no space.

The lack of access to the community contributes to limited resources and lack of modern education. This past year the president of the Republic has passed a law to extend the school day to a full day - from 8am until 4pm with a lunch hour. In the Escuela Basica of Los Blancos there is no space for this to happen, therefor keeping the education as it is and giving the students a limited amount of time and quality education.

Escuela Basica de Los Blancos

Currently, I have a Learning Center being run out my house where I run different classes for kids including a learning to read and write class for all ages, a math reinforcer class, some geography and some creative thinking and writing activities. This has been a great success as I have children and youth coming for classes and to be a part of the creativity and growth that can take place here. The center is currently functioning with donations of materials from friends from home. Unfortunately, once I leave the center will no longer be there - this is where the idea for the Community learning Center started - we need a place that is similar to this but can continue to be run long after the Peace Corps volunteer leaves.