Progress for 100 Dominican kids with special needs

Today I have a great story about one of the children that passed through our program with success!

Hi I am Christopher,

I am now 13 years old and I live in Santiago with my grandmother and my mother. When I was 4 years old, my grandmother worked as a therapist at the Fundación Cuidado Infantil Dominicano and realized that I was not learning like other children. She decided to enroll me in the weekly home visit program to play with me to stimulate my development. At first my grandmother worked with me and my mother, and then Rosa visited us. I really liked it because of the different games they played with me.

My grandmother told me that's why I could enter primary school when I was 7 years old.

And I have done well, because in June this year I graduated from primary school. I am now also playing in a soccer team and I'm helping my uncle in his refrigerator repair shop.

I thank my family and the Fundación, because with their help I have been able to study like other children.

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We celebrate with Christopher and his family this step to the next fase of his life!

Allthough Christopher was able to overcome  his delays, there are many children in our program that have worse delays and are struggling to get to the level needed to be able to go to school, if ever.  Because school inlcusion is the final goal of our home visiting program. 

We thank you for your support of our programs. 

Greetings from Sanitago, the second city in the Dominican Republic,

We are happy because we have been enjoying cooler temperatures in the past Holy Week than during  the years before! 

Today I would like to share Veronica's story with you:

Hello, my name is Veronica and I am 26 years old. When I was 8 years old, my parents enrolled me in the home visit program of the Fundación Cuidado Infantil Dominicano (FCID) to learn how to control myself because I was always very angry and did not respect my parents. I hurt myself and didn't understand commands properly.

I slowly began to learn things like taking care of myself, bathing, dressing, and doing chores around the house. The FCID tried to assist my parents to enroll me in a school, but this was not successful because the school did not accept me after a while.

8 years ago The FCID started a group for teenagers like me and in this group I learned to socialize with others. I am now learning my vowels to both write and read them. I also know how to name geometric shapes. Others tell me that I talk too much, but I really like to talk about different things.

I no longer throw tantrums with my parents, I understand everything that is said to me and I love helping my group mates and my mother. I am really happy now.  I thank God and the program for having so much patience with me.

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Veronica is one of the  children that has lasted the longest in our programs (19 years). Partly because there were no other services for her and she was not the easiest person to deal with for her parents.  Also her progress has been very slow.

Since the beginning of our work in 1993 we have been able to bring hope and progress to more than 2150 children in and around the city of Santiago. In the process we have trained more than 270 persons in the Portage Guide to Early Education method, adapting this for the different disabilities the children presented. Many of them have moved on, became psychologists, speech therapist, physiotherapists and are continuing to work with persons with problems or disabilities.  Some of them have migrated to the United States and have found work in Child Services because of their experience in FCID.

We are very proud to have been able to stimulate not only progress in the children we served and still serve, but also in our workers, because many of them came to us with little education and were able to grow as persons and started their career.

We would like to thank you for your continuous support of our Foundation and inform you that this week we have a special campaign on this platform.  Every donation up to USD50 will get a 50% match. This way you can multiply the impact of your donation for the support of the children, adolescents and young adults like Veronica we serve.

THANK YOU