Stichting Help

NEWS 2014.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015

December 2014

Trip- report November 2014.

Tablets for Colegio Asher

October 2014

Janet Williams, chairwoman of the Sosua Kids As, in Sosúa, wrote:

"School has started but it’s not over yet!

School started a few weeks ago and there still desperate requests from mothers of kids that are still not in school.
The latest is a mother of four kids whose husband was killed working as a “motorconchito” recently. This being a motorcycle taxi for hire of which there are many in this area. This is a dangerous occupation and this is the second new family we are helping this year in the same situation. We already have kids on our lists whose fathers were killed in these kinds of accidents in previous years. Thankfully we will be able to assist this family.
A very kind thing was done recently. Nelly, the aunt of one of our kids works as a maid at the same resort that I do. It was she that brought Enrique to the attention of Sosua Kids a few years ago. Enrique’s father is dead and his mother is in a wheelchair due to some type of illness. This year Nelly asked me to give Enrique’s voucher to some other needy child, as his uniform and shoes are still in good condition and all he needed was a back pack, which she had bought for him. A 15 year old boy, Virfin Antonio, who was still not in school as of last week was given a voucher in place of Enrique’s to his delight.
Another mother of four, who’s only source of income, other than hand washing piles of laundry for neighbors is $3000.00RD ($70.00US) monthly child support payments from her ex-husband. We have been able to help get her kids into school two week after school had started. She is trying to find steady work but there are very few jobs available."

September 2014.

Isabelle and Maude from Canada visited the Colegio Asher between June 23 and July 4 2014.
Their trip report:
"My friend Maude and I went to the school the 23rd of June.
We first got lost, trying to find the place. When we arrived, we were 45minutes late. We were well received and assigned to a class upstairs. There were 3 students that day: Mollina, Estella and Luisito.We sat down in the class and listened to the teacher explain the work. She then asked us to write down words on the board and make students pronounce them. After only a few minutes, we were bound to these kids. At first they were shy but at the end, we were friends!
The next days, are class grew bigger. Madison, Josef and Sodina joined in. We fell in love with these three as we did on our first day with Mollina, Estella and Luisito. We were happy to be a part of their learning and progress. We brought school supplies and soccer/futbol balls to nearly all the kids in the village. We had a blast playing with them before class started.
The 4th of July came and we said our "goodbyes" to our beloved class. We left the school with bracelets made by the students. It deeply touched us considering they don't own much.
We had a lovely time there and a memorable experience".

August 2014

Some 540 vouchers have been issued by the core group of volunteers from the Sosua Kids Association at various places for school uniforms, shoes, backpacks and school materials for the 2014-2015 school year. There was even one volunteer, Michelle Bennett, who came over especially from Canada to help with the administration of this in particular. Many foreigners shun the Dominican Republic in July and August because then it is boiling hot, but despite this Michelle fully assists.

July 2014

Millennium goals for 1 January 2015, interim report on all children going to school:
Increasingly more children in developing countries go to the primary school: 90% in 2011. Especially the Sub-Sahara had made progress, from 60% in 2000 to 77% in 2011.
Progress has stagnated since 2004, which means the goal of all children going to school in 2015 will not be achieved.

Source: Ideaal June 2014

June 2014

Trip-report May 2014

May 2014

It must be said sometime: Canadians are people who I see helping fantastically in the DR again and again, in all types of areas.
A Dominican friend of mine has a 15-year-old son with what is called a cleft palate.She has never had the money to have her son operated on, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for him to live with this disability. Moreover, it is not harmless for him. She asked me if I could help her son in some way or another. I explained the problem to my contacts among the Canadians who I meet in the DR. They told me that there are teams from Canada, as well as from the USA, who come to the DR regularly to perform all types operations for free. I learned how to find these teams and thus put my lady friend in contact with such a team. After various examinations, her son has now had surgery in April and this was a major operation, especially as this should have already been done many years ago. He may not have any solid food for more than a month, but the operation was successful. There will be more operations necessary in future, and everything will be paid through Canada. This is only one of many examples of help offered, and the Canadians do not boast about it, but find it quite normal.

March 2014



Drawings from Sosuakids La Cienaga

February 2014

Shoes for underprivileged children in Puerto Plata

January 2014

In January 2014, the Colegio Asher received a visit from the volunteers of the Colour4kids foundation. They again took the necessary gifts and school articles with them. Our foundation has been maintaining contact and exchanging information with Colour4kids since 2012. They also visited the school in Puerto Plata, taking all types of school supplies, where the children are now being educated who received school uniforms and rucksacks from us in November 2013. Colour4kids is now investigating how they can make a contribution to the improvement and expansion of the school building. Thus both foundations, each in its own way, contribute to improving the conditions for the underprivileged children.