Dominican Republic

The Orfanato Ninos de Cristo Program

La Romana, Dominican Republic

Orfanato Niños De Cristo was founded ten years ago by Sonia Hane, a native Dominican, who had been living in the United States for several years when she felt a strong call to return to her country to open a home devoted to abandoned, abused, or parentless children. The mission of the orphanage is to provide a safe home, family, and education to these children and to prepare them for adulthood. There are currently 124 children in the orphanage. Adoption in the Dominica Republic is extremely difficult because of past abuses of the system, therefore almost all of the children that come to the orphanage Niños De Cristo will stay until they are young adults and can find their way out into society.

In March of 2008, with the help of various donors, a vocational school building was completed with four classrooms. The primary challenge of today is to provide all the children with an opportunity to improve the overall quality of their education and especially to provide the older children with a vocation so they can leave the orphanage and start lives on their own.

How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps

OSF has equipped the classrooms with approximately thirty new computers as well as pay a teacher’s salary on a continuing basis. The goals of the new vocational computer center are to introduce all the children to typing, computer usage, and standard computer skills, allowing them to use the computers for their schoolwork, connect to the world through the internet, and use these skills to qualify for gainful employment.

The Centro de Formación y Capacitación Cabarete Program

Puerto Plata, The Dominican Republic

In 2007, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Puerto Plata established a vocational training center in the township of Cabarete. The training center offers courses at no cost to children and youth, in various subject areas including information technology. These children are extremely poor and most of them suffer from physical disabilities. In addition to receiving vocational education and training, the participants experience increased self-esteem and benefit from moral and civic empowerment that helps keep them away from crime. To date, the center has benefited children who otherwise would have no access to computer training and jobs and facilitated job placement in the labor market and helped promote the self-development of these at-risk youth through basic vocational training and the use of information technology.

How The Orphaned Starfish Foundation Helps

OSF provided funds to furnish and equip the computer center located inside the Centro de Formación y Capacitación de Cabarete, as well as pay the salary for an IT instructor.