By Caitlin McHale | Project Overseer
We finally got the gate fixed at the entrance to the school from the road! It had been an issue for quite awhile now. It is an iron sliding gate. It is the landlord's responsibility to fix but he had not fixed it. We asked if we could fix it and deduct the money from the rent and he said that he would fix it. This went back and forth for months, and actually years. We built a wooden gate inside of the iron gate at one point but it lasted just a few years. He demanded us to not fix the iron gate, saying we would get ripped off, and kept saying he was coming to fix it that weekend or that month. Finally, this past month, we did not pay rent until it was fixed. Although he did not come, he had his man in charge fix it.
So now we can lock the kids in during school! :) We have no doorman so with the teachers being busy teaching, if one wanders off, they have to either leave the class to get the child, or let the child go. We also have no shutting classrooms so that makes classroom management a bit more challenging. We have two normal sized classrooms, one small class that takes place in a very small room, and one class that meets outside under a roof. So this is why kids running off is a problem at times. Hopefully one day we'll have our own building, but up until now we have been renting.
Christmas break is just around the corner. We have many donated clothes, shoes, school supplies, and more we plan on distributing to our students, parents, and teachers through a "little store". They have earned points through attedance and now can redeem them at the "little store".
The Dominican Republic has a 13th month law which means that in December, employers have to provide a Christmas bonus to employees which is an additional month's pay. So we have been trying to save up to provide that but it never is easy! Although we pay between the 1st and 5th of each month for the previous month, in December, employees expect their pay before the 24th and it has to be two months. So it's a challenge! But it helps them to have a nice Christmas.
Thank you so much for your support!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
