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Photo of the Day
Eliza teaching family words to a student in pre-primario at a local school in Montecristi.
Featured Volunteer
Jessica Price
Dunstable, MA
"I have been coming to the Dominican Republic/Orphanage Outreach with both community college students and our church youth group for the past five years. It is the most rewarding experience I have had in 30 years as a nurse educator. I have learned so much about the need for nurses to play an active role in global health as well as the healing power of caring."
Our Mission
The mission of Orphanage Outreach is to provide opportunities to orphaned, abandoned, and disadvantaged children. Certainly the children who live at the orphanage are a focus of ours, but all the children in many Dominican communities are disadvantaged in some way. The economics of many towns are very poor, the children only go to school for half a day, and there are minimal extracurricular activities for the children to participate in.
Orphanage Outreach is focused on providing opportunities for both the children of the orphanage and the children of the town of Monte Cristi. Probably the most powerful way to empower children is through education. The children of Monte Cristi live in a town of limited educational opportunities, non-existent extracurricular activities, and minimal job opportunities. They will most likely be competing with better educated children from Santiago and Santo Domingo for the better educational opportunities and better jobs when they graduate.
One of the areas where Orphanage Outreach volunteers can make the most difference is in teaching English. Each volunteer has strong English skills. The children of the Dominican Republic want to learn English, because it will provide improved educational and career opportunities. But there are a very limited number of English teachers in the Dominican Republic, especially in Monte Cristi. Our goal is that eventually each graduating senior in Monte Cristi will be able to speak English. In September of 2006, we opened the Orphanage Outreach English School and invited all Monte Cristi 5th graders to begin English 1. Today we have students in the 5th-8th grades.