By Caitlin McHale | Project Overseer
The school year ended successfully on June 15th. During the last weeks of school, we met with parents and encouraged them to register at the regularization office. Regularization is a process where immigrants register their identity, get finger printed, photoed, and then are given a receipt. They are supposed to go back and submit certain documents such as a notary act, commercial letters from registered businesses, neighborhood watch letters, background checks, and more. If they submit everything in time, they are supposed to receive a residency card from the Dominican government. This is only for people who have been in the country since 2011 or before. Many of our parents were not taking it seriously, or were waiting until the last minute, and the big threat was that anyone who did not go and register before June 17th would be deported. After that date, many people packed up their stuff and went to Haiti out of fear of being deported and losing their stuff. But until now, August 4th, there have been no deportations. However, many have received their residency cards, so that is a success!
We also took parents, teachers, and students to an office set up by the Haitian government in Santo Domingo where they were giving passports, birth certificates, and Haitian ID cards, all three for 1,000 pesos, which is around $22 US. This is a very good deal and opportunity but we were met with some corruption there with the employees working there, unfortunately. Some people got through the lines whereas others were told to return. It is a four hour bus ride.
As soon as school let out, we got to work putting up classroom divisions and doing other preparations for the next school year. This is why it has been an extremely busy summer! But the school doesn't even look like the same building now. We hired a new director and teacher training and planning started on Monday. We are looking forward to a great new school year! All of our classes will now be in the morning as we have sufficient space to hold them all. And one of our teachers has connections with a vocational school government funded who say they will start doing vocatoinal classes in the afternoons!
The new school year starts August 17th. We still have many more needs before the new school year! However, things are looking good. We hope to make this the year that all of our students are sponsored. Thank you!
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