My last email update-many of you got the email, but I wanted it on here for those that didn't
Hello to all,
It's been a month or so since my last email update, and things have been pretty busy. I could give you all the details of my life in the past month, but instead I'd like to talk about my experiences from this past weekend.
I spent several days working at one of our ministry sites located in a different area of the country. This area, along the north coast of the country is a hotbed for tourism. Beautiful beaches, expensive resorts, and pristine golf courses are commonplace. However, within a few miles of these areas exists communities of people struggling to survive. These are the sugarcane workers--immigrants smuggled over the border from Haiti, brought in to do the dirty work that even poverty stricken Dominicans won't take part in.
They live in shantytowns and suffer through what is essentially indentured servitude under the billion dollar sugar industry. For Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, there is little hope for a better life. Their kids, even those born in the DR, are refused birth certificates, consequently disabling them from attending public schools because papers are required for all students. They are charged rent to live in the most deplorable conditions imaginable by the companies that bring them over to work, promising good wages, then not paid enough even to eat. Add to this the fact that voodoo is still a prominent religion and expensive witch doctors are sought after to cure any medical problems. This is truly a scenario of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It's a cycle of poverty and darkness that has little light at the end of the tunnel.
Kids Alive has partnered with another ministry in this area to offer hope where there is none. The other ministry, Dominican Crossroads, has built a village where families can have at least a roof, concrete floor, electricity, and access to water. They also provide free medical care and often provide food for the people in the village. Kids Alive has come along and agreed to run a school/care center built for those in the village as well as those living in the surrounding area. The idea of the care center is as a supplement to the public school system. It provides extra schooling, a meal every day, and Christian education. Also, the public school has agreed that Haitian students that previously were not allowed to go to school will be permitted to attend as long as they are receiving extra tutoring in our school.
This is where I come in. I am in charge of getting sponsors for the 110 students in the school. As of now maybe 10-15% of the students are sponsored, so there is a huge need that I am hoping to fill soon. The motivation in finding sponsors quickly comes from the fact that while we have 110 students now, there are 450 children in the village built by Crossroads and many more in the surrounding community, most of which will have no chance for schooling, or at least one full meal every day, unless we can accept them. We cannot expand our program until we can adequately support the existing operation. Thus...we need sponsors for these children.
I was given a window into a different world this weekend, and I am passionate about meeting the physical and spiritual needs of these children, as well as the responsibility that is on us, as citizens of the first world, to take action and do something about it. You will hear more from me in the future as this project starts to take flight, but I hope that I was able to shed some light on this world of suffering and get some heads spinning as to the magnitude of this situation.
Please email me if you have any questions or would like more information. If you click on the link to my blog, you will see some pictures taken from the village.
Blog: http://dominicanjon.blogspot.com/
Prayer requests:
-For continued persistence and advancement in my language studies
-For the children I work with every day, that they will see Christ in me
-For the project of getting sponsors for this program so that more children can be added
-For the continuing adjustment process of living in a new country very different from my own
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers
It's been a month or so since my last email update, and things have been pretty busy. I could give you all the details of my life in the past month, but instead I'd like to talk about my experiences from this past weekend.
I spent several days working at one of our ministry sites located in a different area of the country. This area, along the north coast of the country is a hotbed for tourism. Beautiful beaches, expensive resorts, and pristine golf courses are commonplace. However, within a few miles of these areas exists communities of people struggling to survive. These are the sugarcane workers--immigrants smuggled over the border from Haiti, brought in to do the dirty work that even poverty stricken Dominicans won't take part in.
They live in shantytowns and suffer through what is essentially indentured servitude under the billion dollar sugar industry. For Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic, there is little hope for a better life. Their kids, even those born in the DR, are refused birth certificates, consequently disabling them from attending public schools because papers are required for all students. They are charged rent to live in the most deplorable conditions imaginable by the companies that bring them over to work, promising good wages, then not paid enough even to eat. Add to this the fact that voodoo is still a prominent religion and expensive witch doctors are sought after to cure any medical problems. This is truly a scenario of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. It's a cycle of poverty and darkness that has little light at the end of the tunnel.
Kids Alive has partnered with another ministry in this area to offer hope where there is none. The other ministry, Dominican Crossroads, has built a village where families can have at least a roof, concrete floor, electricity, and access to water. They also provide free medical care and often provide food for the people in the village. Kids Alive has come along and agreed to run a school/care center built for those in the village as well as those living in the surrounding area. The idea of the care center is as a supplement to the public school system. It provides extra schooling, a meal every day, and Christian education. Also, the public school has agreed that Haitian students that previously were not allowed to go to school will be permitted to attend as long as they are receiving extra tutoring in our school.
This is where I come in. I am in charge of getting sponsors for the 110 students in the school. As of now maybe 10-15% of the students are sponsored, so there is a huge need that I am hoping to fill soon. The motivation in finding sponsors quickly comes from the fact that while we have 110 students now, there are 450 children in the village built by Crossroads and many more in the surrounding community, most of which will have no chance for schooling, or at least one full meal every day, unless we can accept them. We cannot expand our program until we can adequately support the existing operation. Thus...we need sponsors for these children.
I was given a window into a different world this weekend, and I am passionate about meeting the physical and spiritual needs of these children, as well as the responsibility that is on us, as citizens of the first world, to take action and do something about it. You will hear more from me in the future as this project starts to take flight, but I hope that I was able to shed some light on this world of suffering and get some heads spinning as to the magnitude of this situation.
Please email me if you have any questions or would like more information. If you click on the link to my blog, you will see some pictures taken from the village.
Blog: http://dominicanjon.blogspot.com/
Prayer requests:
-For continued persistence and advancement in my language studies
-For the children I work with every day, that they will see Christ in me
-For the project of getting sponsors for this program so that more children can be added
-For the continuing adjustment process of living in a new country very different from my own
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers
posted by Jonathan Coleman at 5:24 AM
2 Comments:
Hi jon, It is so exciting to see how God is enabling you to experience things in the DR and share it with other Christians and touch their hearts. I hope all is going well for you and that God will continue to bless your presence and allow you to touch the lives of His precious little ones. The pictures are a huge impact.
What a gift you have for communicating in written word! Who knew?? I felt as though I was there with you the way you described everything. We love you! You have some fun DVD seasons coming your way for your birthday!!
Rebecca
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