The following is a video made by Nikki Cochrane following her 2 month volunteer trip to the DR. It focuses specifically on her work and friendship with the older boys whom Dove provides english classes for.
Friday, July 17, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Shopping Trip
The following was written in July 2009, by Crystal Fox. She sponsors Yaneli, Cristina, and Camili, and volunteered with Dove Missions for 2 weeks.
After club Linda and I took the three little girls that I decided to sponsor shopping for school uniforms. Not an easy task with three very shy little girls who speak only Spanish...Thank God for Linda!Anyway I was expecting to pay abou $50/uniform. I bought them each one skirt, two tops, two pairs of undies, two pairs of socks, an undershirt and shoes.Then I thought I`d get them each a notebook and told them to pick one out.Then we went down the isle to get pencils and guess what? They had STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE stuff!!! So now each girl has Strawberry pencils, colored pencils, crayons, pencil cases and book bags.Plus we got some erasers and pencil sharpeners.I would have liked to let them each pick out a top or something on their own but I had to be back to meet the boys and it was getting late.
The girls are all so shy but seeing them so carefully choose something as simple as underwear made my day! And they all loved their book bags:) When we got to the school Hilda took me to meet their mom and she was so sweet. She hugged me and kissed me and couldn`t thank me enough.I got Hilda to tell her that I was going to sponsor her family and she hugged me all over again. The girls hugged and kissed me too and Camili was smiling so big!!!Just seeing that made it all worth it:)In the end I paid about 3900RD. That`s about $130 Canadian. Can you imagine getting all that stuff at home for that much?
The girls live with their mom and grandmother. Their father is dead, I don`t know if this is recent or not but they are probably the quietest, most shy girls in the club.They live right on the water in Playa Oeste and I know that might sound good but their back yard is basically a garbage dump.Many of the kids play in the water and use it for cleaning and even search throught the garbage for things to play with or treasures to sell.Their house is cement with a tin roof and while better than many here, is something most of us can`t imagine. They have no windows, only a front and back door. Think how hot it must get when it is 115 degrees here!
After club Linda and I took the three little girls that I decided to sponsor shopping for school uniforms. Not an easy task with three very shy little girls who speak only Spanish...Thank God for Linda!Anyway I was expecting to pay abou $50/uniform. I bought them each one skirt, two tops, two pairs of undies, two pairs of socks, an undershirt and shoes.Then I thought I`d get them each a notebook and told them to pick one out.Then we went down the isle to get pencils and guess what? They had STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE stuff!!! So now each girl has Strawberry pencils, colored pencils, crayons, pencil cases and book bags.Plus we got some erasers and pencil sharpeners.I would have liked to let them each pick out a top or something on their own but I had to be back to meet the boys and it was getting late.
The girls are all so shy but seeing them so carefully choose something as simple as underwear made my day! And they all loved their book bags:) When we got to the school Hilda took me to meet their mom and she was so sweet. She hugged me and kissed me and couldn`t thank me enough.I got Hilda to tell her that I was going to sponsor her family and she hugged me all over again. The girls hugged and kissed me too and Camili was smiling so big!!!Just seeing that made it all worth it:)In the end I paid about 3900RD. That`s about $130 Canadian. Can you imagine getting all that stuff at home for that much?
The girls live with their mom and grandmother. Their father is dead, I don`t know if this is recent or not but they are probably the quietest, most shy girls in the club.They live right on the water in Playa Oeste and I know that might sound good but their back yard is basically a garbage dump.Many of the kids play in the water and use it for cleaning and even search throught the garbage for things to play with or treasures to sell.Their house is cement with a tin roof and while better than many here, is something most of us can`t imagine. They have no windows, only a front and back door. Think how hot it must get when it is 115 degrees here!
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Casa Nazaret
The following was written in July 2009, by Crystal Fox, who volunteered with Dove Missions for 2 weeks. It tells the account of her experiences at the Casa Nazaret orphanage.
On Mon. we had english class with the older boys. We had a great turn out and Jenny and Jensen did an amazing job at teaching the class.Everyone is just wants to learn so bad...some of the boys really struggle with writing but they try their hardest:) While class was in progress I went out and played with the little kds who were just hangind around.They are all so sweet, always wanting hugs and to hold your hand:)
When we left the class we went to Casa Nazaret, an orphanage for special needs children. The place was great. Very nice and clean with a really nice backyard and play equipment for the kids. The children range from being horribly sick to having very mild disorders. There is even one little girl there who is perfectly healthy but both of her parents are in prison. The place is run by a nun named Mercedes who is wonderful and all the women who work there seem very loving and kind.I think the worst part for me was to see several kids who needed so much more than these women could give. There are several kids whom they pretty much have to force feed and that was hard to watch as I`m pretty sure these kids should not be fed orally...The one little girl I was helping with was one of the worst. They would tip her head all the way back and spoon in pureed food. She couldn`t swallow and it kept coming back up...and when any did go down you could here that it was coming back up and see that it cause this little girl distress. Her lips were cracked and bleeding from them having to force the spoon in. It`s not really their fault, they are doing the best they can with the little bit of knowledge they have. One little guy is sooo sick. He looks about 1 year old, 2 at best but they told me he was 5. They were feeding him with 3 little medicine cups, just drops at a time. You could tell that it was not an easy process for him.When he was done the lady with him held him and once again you could hear the gurggling sounds where the tiny bit of liquid he had was coming back up...It was very hard to see but if these women wouldn`t have taken the kids in then they would surely be dead now.They are doing all they know how to do...There`s a 10 month old there who was brought in severly malnourished and near death. He is now a very happy , chubby little boy:) You would never have a clue of what he looked like before.
On Mon. we had english class with the older boys. We had a great turn out and Jenny and Jensen did an amazing job at teaching the class.Everyone is just wants to learn so bad...some of the boys really struggle with writing but they try their hardest:) While class was in progress I went out and played with the little kds who were just hangind around.They are all so sweet, always wanting hugs and to hold your hand:)When we left the class we went to Casa Nazaret, an orphanage for special needs children. The place was great. Very nice and clean with a really nice backyard and play equipment for the kids. The children range from being horribly sick to having very mild disorders. There is even one little girl there who is perfectly healthy but both of her parents are in prison. The place is run by a nun named Mercedes who is wonderful and all the women who work there seem very loving and kind.I think the worst part for me was to see several kids who needed so much more than these women could give. There are several kids whom they pretty much have to force feed and that was hard to watch as I`m pretty sure these kids should not be fed orally...The one little girl I was helping with was one of the worst. They would tip her head all the way back and spoon in pureed food. She couldn`t swallow and it kept coming back up...and when any did go down you could here that it was coming back up and see that it cause this little girl distress. Her lips were cracked and bleeding from them having to force the spoon in. It`s not really their fault, they are doing the best they can with the little bit of knowledge they have. One little guy is sooo sick. He looks about 1 year old, 2 at best but they told me he was 5. They were feeding him with 3 little medicine cups, just drops at a time. You could tell that it was not an easy process for him.When he was done the lady with him held him and once again you could hear the gurggling sounds where the tiny bit of liquid he had was coming back up...It was very hard to see but if these women wouldn`t have taken the kids in then they would surely be dead now.They are doing all they know how to do...There`s a 10 month old there who was brought in severly malnourished and near death. He is now a very happy , chubby little boy:) You would never have a clue of what he looked like before.
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