Holiday Preparations

We are busy at the Club preparing for the Christmas party that will be held this Sunday for all of our children. We have a lot of volunteers coming to help out this Christmas, and the first of them arrived this week; Melissa Bazely (Dove's Volunteer Coordinator) and her Mom, Gail! So with their help, and two of the Mothers in the Club, we spread out little pieces of paper with the kids' names all across the Club to sort gifts for their Christmas baskets. Gifts were distributed according to age, gender, and size. Each child will be getting a basket full of toys, clothes, shoes, school supplies, and much more. One of the Mothers commented that this will be the best Christmas ever for her kids! The Christmas party is being held this Sunday, so you still have time to donate! We are going to need about $1000 total for everything. Thank you to everyone who has donated already, and to everyone who donated supplies to fill the baskets!

Mothers

At Dove, we strongly believe in 'giving a hand up, rather than a hand out' and we try to think of this in everything we do. When we were doing applications for children in June, prior to entering the new building and starting the Club, we knew we wanted the kids and their families to feel at home in the Club, and to feel as if it was something that they had worked hard for. In mid-June, as we started classes with the kids, we had a big meeting with all the children and their families and we explained this to the mothers. In order for their kids to attend and for them to receive grocery vouchers every month, they would need to help out as well. We wanted all of the family members to have a role in the Center- not just the kids. Since then, the Mothers have taken it upon themselves to be in charge of the cleaning of the Center. Every Tuesday at 1:30, Thursday at 1:30, and Saturday at 4:30 (a half hour before the kids leave) we have Mothers show up to tidy up for 30 minutes. They sweep, mop, tidy up, and sometimes help with the children and the Center itself (organizing, doing hair, etc.) We think this has been a really great way to get the Mothers involved, and we really enjoy spending that time with them. To the left, you can see Carolina and her mother, Dinora, as she was in the Center helping to clean. Below, you can see a cleaning schedule that the Mothers came up with on their own.

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.

Jaritza

This week Isamay and Yamali's mother, Jaritza, came to the club with a craft. She will hold a class for the all the other mothers that want to learn. She makes hair pom poms out of yarn. What is most impressive is what she makes them with. There is a name for this craft, usually done with a wooden spool, if anyone knows the name please let us know. Jaritza doesn't have a proper wooden spool, she makes her hair pom poms from a hair roller with 4 bobby pins stuck to it. She runs the yarn around, and lifts up each corner over the bobby pins with a little crochet hook. The yarn makes a round tube like line of yarn. She then makes the pom poms from wool with cardboard, and ends up with big colorful pom poms that are used for hair ties for the girls. You can see little Estefania as our model.





Written by Cathy