Sponsors needed!

Wonderful news!
To all of you who have been waiting to sponsor a child, our family sponsorship program has expanded to include individual child sponsorship! This ensures the voucher program, school uniforms and cost of participating in the club to all of the children in our club! If you would like to participate, please email our coordinator, Melissa Bazely at mbazely@sympatico.ca and let her know. Here is the list of children waiting for sponsorship; check out their pages for information photos!

Thank you,

Liz McKie
Executive Director and Founder - Dove Missions

Children in need of a sponsor:

Abram
Anoluis
Antonio
Brittany
Emilio
Erica
Genesis
Kathiana
Loraini
Luis Manuel 2
Sauri
Sindi
Tatiana
Yamali
Yaneli
Yesson
Yordi
Yueri

No more leaks!

Saturday, January 16, 2009

Today was an awesome day at the club! The new programs and scheduling is being put into place and everything is going smoothly. The morning consisted of the puppet program, and the little kids working with Terry and Damaris. The kids were so calm - these teachers really have a great gift of working with small children.

The afternoon was spent with the older kids and Tadeu working on the music program. After hours of auditions last week, Tadeu made his decisions. The kids who did not make the band will be our production crew. They are all really excited.



Our band is going to be called Banda Club POP. Here is the list of our new band:

15 members

Christina
Rosemary
Marco
Alani
Jeffri
Luery C.
Coco
Andy
Marcos
Yohan
Angel Luis
Andrieli
Seliel
Alberto
Kelvin

Singers: 10 members

Ally
Yesenia (neighbor that was listening through the window during auditions)
Isamay
Carolina
Eddie
Lorainia
Vanessa
Franciel
Oliver
Elizabeth

The kids also brainstormed ideas of what they will write songs about. Some of the topis included responsibility, earth quakes, recycling/garbage, kindness, love of parents - and that is just to name a few - We have such intelligent kids!

Some more great news - our roof is fixed!!! The owner of the building came to see what was happening last Thursday, and by the next day he had it fixed. It is still raining, and there were only a couple of minor leaks - but he is fixing them now.

Stay tuned for more later this week!

Tara's Visit

Our visit at the Dove Missions Rec Center in Puerto Plata this past December was absolutely the highlight of our vacation. We planned ahead of time to bring with us school supplies and clothing in order to help the center and the kids in some small way. What we didn't expect was the amount of joy and heartfelt moments that our short time spent at the center would bring us. Eye-opening moments.

As someone who lived full time in Puerto Plata for 5 years in the 90's, I thought I already knew what doing something like this would be like. I thought I had already experienced the emotion, excitement, pride, curiosity, and appreciation of Dominican children during my time living amongst them in their own environment. Spending time with these kids now gave me, my boyfriend Brooke, my brother Mike , and my niece Cassandra memories to last a lifetime.

It sounds cliche, but they truley gave us far more than we gave them.
If this is something that you are considering doing (even just a little bit), I encourage you to take the time and 100% visit the center. Cathy, Liz and all the kids will forever leave an imprint on your heart. These are good people doing good things for others. Plain and simple.

Tara Schlatman
Hanover, Ontario, Canada

Supplies going to Haiti soon!

Thank you to everyone who has donated to our Haiti relief fund. Today at the club we sorted through all of our emergency relief supplies, extra clothing, towels, sheets, toiletires and sorted it into bags. We put a bit of everything in each bag. We will be sending this very soon hopefully, and adding to it with the monies we raise in our Haiti relief fund. So far, we have spent over $1000 on medical supplies that will be flown over within the next couple of days. We bought all of our medical supplies from a good friend who owns a pharmacy, called Famracia Dolores, and he generously donated more than double the supplies of what we bought. We are still accepting donations, as this is not just a one time, donate relief effort. This will be an ongoing effort, where much assistance will be needed.

Haiti Relief

As many of you have probably already heard, on Tuesday, January 12, 2010 a massive Earthquake occurred in Haiti. Their capital, Port Au Prince has been destroyed with hospitals, homes, and major buildings collapsing. According to CNN, 100,000 have been confirmed dead, with a possible hundreds of thousands more missing and feared a casualty. For those who did survive, the city is in ruins and they have no where to go, and nothing to survive with. We, as a humanitarian organization cannot stand back when we are just a few hundred miles from this disaster. We have decided that the best way for us to help is to join forces with other mission groups in our area. We are collecting supplies and funds to purchase the items that will be sent to the earthquake area. The supplies being sent are sheets, towels, clothing, shoes, and the basic essentials. We are keeping in mind here that people's homes have been completely destroyed.
If you are interested in donating to the Haiti relief cause, please do so by making a donation through PAYPAL. There is a link on our blog and our website to do so, and please include a note with the donation, "For Haiti". Thank you.

Welcome to 2010!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

In the morning today, the puppetry teacher (Christiane Saad) was in working with the older boys and girls, and the younger kids worked with two of our teachers, Damaris and Terry, who are both really great with young kids. In the afternoon, we had our new music teacher, Tadeu De Marco in working with the older kids as well. Since our puppet and music programs are brand new, here is a brief description:

The music program is being run by a Brazilian man, Tadeu De Marco, who has worked with the age group of kids we have many times over, and created some awesome music. He starts with putting the band together - 10 singers, 10 dancers, and 15 musicians. Since we have more kids than that in the club, he did auditions - and this is what he spent hours doing on Saturday at the club. Next, Tadeu will teach the kids how to make the instruments out of bamboo, higuero (this is what maracas are made of), milk cans, PVC tube, and bicycle tire inner tubes.
And then of course, he will teach them the actual music, and by the end the children will be ready by then to show off their talents at a few local hotels. The CD produced will be sold to visitors to help the families of our kids.
This program will take 6 months - which will take the kids right into the summer. They are super excited about it, and we learned through the auditions that the kids you least expect seem to have the most talent.

The puppetry program is more than most might think - the kids are being taught by the teacher, Christiane Saad, how to make these puppets out of paper mache and recycled materials. They will write their own plays, and create their own shows. This program is GREAT for the kids, and they will really have the chance to showcase their creativity.

Overall, today was an amazing day. It was a really big day for the kids and everyone is super excited for the upcoming year and all of these great opportunities.

Fishing time!

Saturday, January 3, 2010

Today was a GREAT day the club. Todd and Cindy, two of our board members and fundraisers for DOVE have been collecting fishing rods over the past few months. They ended up collecting 30, and shipped them down here before they arrived since they were not able to check them as cargo on their airplane.

So today, throughout the course of the classes, each boy picked out thier fishing rod with Todd, according to size, height, etc. and then at the end of the day they were able to take them home. The boys were SO excited, and they could barely contain themselves all day.

Normally we do not like to just give out presents to the kids, however the fishing rods are a very different story. The rods will be able to help the entire family...they will be able to properly catch fish to eat. We have seen a few different makeshift ways of fishing and nothing works as well as an actual rod.
Along with the rods, Todd also brought tackle, and each boy recieved a ziplock full of hooks and tackle to go with their fishing rod.

The boys were super excited, and later on that day, as we were driving down one of the back roads, in the pouring rain, we saw two of the boys, huge smiles on their faces, fishing rods in hand, and in the other a fish in a ziplock. "For the lunch" they said...they could not have been happier. Thanks Todd and Cindy!

A Child's Eyes

My husband, youngest daughter, and two adult sons decided to visit Dove Missions on a recent trip to Puerto Plata and our lives will be forever changed. We had the priviledge of getting to know many of the boys and girls who are part of Dove Missions and even though there was a language barrier their eyes said it all. These children, who have suffered more than any human being should ever have to suffer, had a light in their eyes and smiles on their faces - they had hope. This hope is because of the work that Liz, Kathy, and Melissa are doing in their lives. Liz reminded us of Mother Theresa - giving selflessly to the innocent children and families. The love that these children are receiving because of these women touched our family and we are forever grateful. If you have the opportunity to financially support this ministry I would not hesitate. If you have the chance to visit them get ready to experience poverty like you have never seen but your bucket will be filled up with the love coming from the children! Thank you Liz, Kathy and Melissa for sharing your hearts and vision with us. We are forever grateful.
Love, Roy, Trudy, Abby, Alex and Sam, Lake Oswego, OR

Field Trips

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Today was an AWESOME day! We decided to take some of the kids on field trips. So, in the morning, along with 17 great volunteers, we took our group of older older girls up the mountain in a cable car. We all squished in the bus we rented - Dominican style, and headed to the "TeleFerico". We were able to pair each girl up with a volunteer, so everyone had some great one on one time.

We had to split up into two groups for the cable cars, but we all met up at the top and walked around together.
We walked around the top of the mountain, and despite the misty rain and slippery paths, everyone really enjoyed themselves. The girls had a blast, and most of them had never been up before.
After we dropped off our big group of volunteers, we took the girls for lunch at the provocone. We had yummy chicken, rice, fried plantanes, and french fries. The girls were super excited about the day, and when we dropped them off at the center, they all left with huge smiles on their faces.

In the afternoon, we took some of the little boys and some of the older boys to the old Fort. It is really cool there, and there are lots of places to run around, and lots of old pictures and artefacts to look at.

We paired each older boy with one younger boy, and they walked around together, and sat together on the bus. A lot of the older boys are really good with the younger ones, and helping out with them.

There are several different sections of the Fort, and we tried to keep the group together and move around together - this was a really good idea. The kids had so much fun, and they too, left with huge smiles on their faces.

A busy end to 2009!!!

Right now the kids are on Christmas break, and we have had a very busy week! We had two more volunteers from Canada arrive this week, as well as three of our board members. We have been with the kids every day, since it is their Christmas vacation.

On Saturday, Jenny and Jencen, our volunteers taught the kids Michael Jackson dances. The kids LOVE MJ, and Jenny and Jencen are awesome dance teachers. It was so funny, and a lot of fun. Some of the kids that I would have never expected to get up and dance actually did.

On Monday, we held our very first computer class. It was only the first one, so we took away a few things for next time. One of them being, maximum two kids to a computer...it was a little hectic! But the kids loved it, and were really trying hard.

In the afternoon we did a camera class, with a fun activity to follow. We gave the kids 10 things that they needed to take pictures of, i.e. a preganant lady, a black dog, and they had to go out in the neighbourhood and take the best pictures of these things.
On Tuesday, we had the girls for an hour in the morning, preparing letters to send to their sponsors. Then we had the kids that had participated in the camera activity in to view all of their pictures...we actually had some pretty amazing pictures. And then at noon, as always on Tuesday's, we had boys club. We did sponsor letters with them, and then took a break for lunch. After lunch, we had all the boys back for a sports activity. We took them to the huge baseball field around the corner from the club, and they had a blast playing baseball.

We have had a very busy week so far, and the kids are really having an awesome Christmas break!