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
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