This holiday season, we are uniting behind the shared belief that ALL children deserve a high quality education and the tools to lift themselves out of poverty. Our Montessori Preschool in Batey Caraballo is a place where children develop a love for learning and families participate in the DREAM of a better future. 100% of proceeds go towards the program budget and education of the 95 young learners and your generosity this holiday will help change a life forever.
The community of Batey Caraballo is made up of Dominicans, Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian decent, living in varying degrees of poverty and extreme poverty (US$1 to US$2 per family, per day). Like many Batey communities, Caraballo is located deep in abandoned sugar cane fields, isolated from the outside world. Like most impoverished communities, quality education opportunities are rare, so the Montessori Preschool and adjoining public library offer the best resource to break this cycle.
Children, and in turn, their families, are introduced to a new culture of education. The Montessori methodology is tailored to impoverished youth and our program is totally inclusive, with family members volunteering at the school, using the library and learning to become proactive in their future. Literacy and critical thinking are key components of our work, so their education becomes a center point to daily life, not an afterthought.
The geographic isolation of Caraballo makes economic growth challenging, as does the lack of employment opportunities and quality schools. Ultimately, more than 1,000 children and their families are introduced to a new solution. As the students grow from this foundation of high quality education, they are slowly assimilated into our library, at risk youth programs and eventually, workforce development.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
