November Newsletter

Below is a short excerpt from the November 2009 Newsletter. Click HERE to read it all!

Greetings from the Dominican Republic!

What an exciting year! As the holidays approach there is much anticipation here to celebrate all of the great things that have happened with Dove Missions this last year. We were blessed with over 200 volunteers visiting us, sharing their time, talents and donations. With your support, we offered much needed help to the girl’s orphanage, hospital, Mustard Seed and Casa Nazarete disabled children’s homes. We painted houses, rebuilt schools and bought 50 children school uniforms and supplies. Your donations provided education, food, clean water, clothes, medicine, pampers and formula to hundreds of desperately poor children and families.

With your help we started our “club” in January as a pilot program with 12 street boys and by June we added 60 more children, and included girls programming. We had to utilize churches and schools for our classrooms until our new space was renovated. By September we were up and running in our new Vocational and Recreational center. We have over 80 children enrolled in our programs and a lengthy waiting list as well. Our programs include 6 main areas: Library and Computer Lab, Sports and Recreation Center, Health and Wellness, Art and Theater, Learning center, Vocational Training.

All of these programs are in need of sponsorship. We are able to provide a safe place for these children to receive a meal, opportunities to learn and grow and give them the hope they need to survive their current conditions. They have been sold into prostitution, violated in pedophilia rings, have parents dying of AIDS, on drugs and in jail and some are living with other family members or friends and are used as child laborers. We have kept them off of the streets and in school. We are keeping them fed and provide emergency medical relief. For every single child in our program, the “club” is a safe haven from the violence in the streets and in the home. A sandwich and juice at the club may be the only food they receive that day. It is a beacon of love and security that they have never experienced before.

Starting the New Year, we do not have the funding needed to keep the center operational, especially with the programming we have planned. I am asking you to partner with us by sending a financial gift this Christmas. Without our presence in this community, these children will be sent back into the streets, sold into the sex trades and used as child laborers and thieves.

Thank you for your continued support in Dove Missions programs. We especially need your support this coming year. Please know that whatever you can give will go a long way—and it will be very special because you cared enough to give it! With your help, we can fulfill our promise that Dove Missions will provide these children, who face so many uncertainties to know one thing for sure: Dove Missions will always be there with a smile, a word of encouragement and the gift of hope for the future.

Thank you,
Elizabeth McKie
Executive Director and Founder
Dove Missions

Holiday Party for Hope

We would like to take a moment to recognize two of our Dove Missions volunteers, Melissa Bazely and Samantha Short, pictured together below in the Dominican in May. They were working with Dove Missions in the summer, and will be back both over the holidays and next summer for several months. They have seen Dove's huge need, and are fundraising to help cover the costs of some of our programs. They are holding a Spaghetti Dinner on December 2nd in Barrie, Ontario, so if anyone lives in that area, be sure to check it out for a great cause! Or, you could contact either of them to get ideas on how to start your own fundraiser for Dove Missions! You can contact Melissa at mbazely@sympatico.ca for advice on fundraising for Dove. We have so many programs in the works, and just need the funds to get started!

The Holiday Party of Hope will be held at Holly United Church, 211 Marsellus Dr. on Dec. 2 from 6 p. m. to 9 p. m. A spaghetti dinner and desserts will be served. Tickets are $15 dollars in advance at the church, and $20 at the door. Children ages five to 12 are $5 and those under age five are free.

Click HERE to read the full article.

Christmas Preparations!

Christmas is just one month away and we are planning a big party for the kids. We are going to have a dinner for the 79 kids, currently planned for December 20th. For all the food we will be buying, we will need about $5 per person. If you are interested in sponsoring a Christmas dinner, you can use the paypal button to the right (just specify that it is for Christmas) and for every $5 you donate, we will have the funds for one more dinner. We will also be raising money for transportation to the location we are having the party at, Christmas baskets with gifts for each family, and supplies for our Christmas play (set design, costumes, makeup, etc.) Donating $5 or $10 is a great gift idea for teachers or coaches this Christmas, and something that most people would really value receiving!

The kids are already very excited. Most of the families that they come from do not do anything special for Christmas. If they can afford it, they will have a special dinner. We already have the Center covered in Christmas decorations, complete with a little Charlie Brown Christmas tree! This is going to be a really special time for the kids, and we need your help to make it happen! You can see Cathy and Liz on the picture to the left, and Eddie, Oliver, and Angel below. We would like to thank Todd and Cindy Evans for the donation of all the Christmas decorations!

Music Program

We are definitely going to go ahead with the music program. We have arranged a music teacher from Brazil that has been living here for years. Tadeu will spend the first 2 months constructing instruments from recycled materials, milk cans, PVC tube, water jugs, bamboo, etc. he will help the older boys do this, the next 4 months he will be teaching the boys and some of the bigger kids to play in a band, some will play, some will sing, and some will dance. They will be writing their own songs, and their own music. At the end they will be producing a CD, the music will be that good.

We are starting this music program because music is an important part of these children's lives and they light up dancing and singing when they hear music playing. The program design would include the teacher, instruments, all construction, tools, and buses to hotels to play. It is top of the line instruction at a hefty price of $600.00 a month for a 6 month program. We have others interested in donating, and once we receive enough donations to cover the whole program we will begin.

The children are so excited, and with the recording of the CD, all our sponsors will have an opportunity to hear their donation in action!


This is the main project we are working on fundaising for right now. If you are interested in donating, please click on the paypal button on the right sidebar. In the box, note that it is for the music program. Thank you so much!

The Vehicle Fund

We would like to thank everyone who donated towards the Vehicle Fund over the past few months, espcially Todd and Cindy Evans who worked hard to make this happen. Liz was in great need of a vehicle. She spent a lot of time bringing volunteers around Puerto Plata, as well as transporting kids in the Club, and without a vehicle of her own, a lot of money was being spent on hiring a driver. We are very excited to announce that enough money was raised for Liz to purchase a vehicle; in perfect timing as we had lots of volunteers helping out at Dove Missions this week who needed transportation! This will cut down on a lot of costs for hiring drivers, and will make showing our volunteers around a lot easier. Thank you again to everyone who made this possible!!

iGive

For those of you who do online shopping (especially with the holidays fast approaching) this is a really great way to do your shopping AND support Dove at the same time! Shopping or searching at IGIVE means a donation for your favorite cause... Dove Missions! You can earn a penny or more just for searching, a $5 bonus for your first purchase, and up to 26% of your purchases at over 730 stores like Amazon, eBay, Travelocity, Home Depot, among many other stores. So when you are doing your shopping this holiday season, think of Dove and shop through iGive!

Click HERE and sign up!

School Uniform Drive

We would like to give a HUGE thank you to everyone who donated in our school uniform drive. While school is free here in the DR, uniforms and shoes are a requirement and this makes going to school difficult for some. Because of all of the generous sponsors, we were able to outfit over THIRTY kids in our program with full uniforms, shoes, and school supplies! In the photo is the adorable Estefania with her new uniform and Strawberry Shortcake backpack- all ready to start school! Thank you again to all of you who made this possible!

School Uniform Drive

As was mentioned in another post, right now the big fundraiser Dove is having is for school uniforms. School starts next week!! We have 70 children in our program that we would love to be able to provide school uniforms for. It is $40.00 US to buy 2 shirts, bottoms, undershirts and underpants, socks, shoes and gym clothes notebooks and pencils. This will put a child in school. School is free in the DR, but many families cannot afford the uniforms. No uniforms = no school. As of a few days ago, we have only raised funds for 10 children to have uniforms. Last year we provided uniforms for FIFTY children, so we need to at least meet that number, if not exceed it to be able to help every child in our program (70).

Go to DOVE's website on the Support page and donated $40 on the paypal, and a child will be able to attend school. Education is the BEST way to get these children out of poverty. And as an interesting sidenote, the children of mothers who have had a primary education are 40% more likely to reach the age of 5. So not only are you helping these kids, you putting them in school will be helping their future generations to come.

In this video, Liz is taking some of the kids out for ice cream before going to get their uniforms. In the second, they are in the store getting their supplies, and in the third, they are showing off what they got. Yoandi, Andy, Andrieli, Meriledi, Yordi, and Loraina are in the videos. Thank you to Cathy and Deb for paying for their uniforms!