Dental Care

Last Thursday we had a dentist come in and teach the kids about the importance of dental health. Dr. Lepe came with his daughter, Alexandra, who is in dental school, and they did a lesson on things like how to brush your teeth properly, how to floss, and what a cavity is. You can see Alani in the picture as she was brought up to the front to demonstrate teeth brushing. A big thank you to Dr. Lepe and his daughter Alexandra!

Bites, Cuts, and Infections

As you have probably seen, we have a post outlining a list of items that we need to be donated here at the Center. Some of the most important supplies needed are in the health and medical care area, such as Advil, children's Tylenol, skin cream (polysporin), rash medicine, bandaids, etc. These photos demonstrate why we need these items. Loraina was bit by a bee while she was sleeping, and Kelvin's hand was bit by a dog. We often have kids coming to the Center with infections and cuts and scrapes that we can treat easily if we have these supplies. Loraina spent 2 days like this before she came to the Club and we saw, and gave her Benedryl, and Kelvin had to go to the hospital for an injection.

Vitamin Program

Dove Missions is going to be launching a new Vitamin Program for the kids in the new year, the first week of January. Many of the kids who attend the Boys and Girls Clubs have very limited diets and don't get all the nutrition their bodies need. Vitamins will help balance their nutrition and keep them healthy.

As of now, we have collected 7800 vitamins!! This is enough to launch an 8 month program for about half of our children! We haven't decided yet which children will take part in the program; we are thinking of possibly doing one gender (either all the girls, or all the boys) or doing it by age (all the kids 9 and under). We will post final details in January when the program launches.

The vitamins will be organized into small bags with 7 vitamins in each bag (see the photo). Every Saturday when the kids are at Club, we will hand out a bag that will have enough vitamins for that week. Before the program launches, we will hold a nutrition classes for the kids and their mothers, teaching them about the importance of vitamins and how and why their kids should take them.

All that said, the long term goal is to have enough vitamins for all the kids in the Dove Missions program. We also hope to extend this program past 8 months. Because of this, we would greatly appreciate donations of vitamins from anyone coming to Puerto Plata to volunteer at the Center. We are using any kind of chewable children's multivitamin. For people wishing to help from Canada, you can donate using Shoppers Drug Mart points. Just go to the Shoppers website and click on Shoppers Optimum, and then Transfer Points (http://www.shoppersdrugmart.ca/english/optimum/transfer_points/index.html) You will have to enter in your card information, and then put in the following card info. You will need the last 9 digits of my card, which are: 893 742 330

Contact Nikki at ncochrane3@hotmail.com if you want more info on how you can support this program.

Aurelia

Three kids in the club, Dauri, Tania, and Victor Manuel, live with their grandmother, Aurelia. She is a very tough lady, and a unique person; anyone who meets her gets that impression immediately. This week she lost her balance and both her legs touched the muffler of the motorconcho. Now she needs money for medicine, and there is a risk of infection. She walked all the way to the club to tell Cathy that she wouldn't be able to help clean the club with the other mothers. This happens all the time, and shows just one of the many hardships for the people of Puerto Plata. If you don't like photos of cuts/blood, underneath the photo of Aurelia is a photo of her legs, so scroll down past that! But I do recommend taking a look, as this knowledge really helps one understand the lives of the kids and their families.

Girls Club

Teaching the kids about cleanliness is very important. This is something that we often take for advantage, but this knowledge is not known by all the kids, and much of it is new to them. Here they are with a teacher, Teresa, learning about personal hygeine and its importance. In the second video they are just having fun with some free time- look at those smiles!

Water Filter For The Club

This past week, Project Las Americas has donated a water filter to the Club! The website says about the water filter; "A sixty dollar investment can empower a family to produce their own potable water for fifty years with the BioSand water filter, developed by Dr. Dave Manz. A simple and effective means to reduce child mortality in developing countries. The combination of the robust and sustainable technology with a comprehensive Technology Transfer Intervention model has brought safe drinking water to thousands of families. Filtration is a simple process which is followed by post-chlorination. The beneficiaries use the water to drink, cook, clean and bath. The filter can produce in excess of 100 gallons per day which exceeds the usual needs of a family. Filters are also installed in schools and other institutions serving lager groups. Due to the combined efforts of all alliance partners, as of 2008, 18,000 families had access to potable water in the Dominican Republic via the BioSand filter. Project Las Americas made a ten year commitment to working towards the elimination of water born diseases. We hope to cooperate and assist others to take this technology to other developing countries."

We will have classes of the importance of clean water for good health and sanitation, and instructions on how to use and implement the water filter program. I am so excited! Everyone who has been here knows the terrible conditions the people live in and the lack of clean water is number one on the list of problems. What a tremendous gift to our club. Thank you!!!!