I’m writing today to ask you for your help with a camp that a group of Peace Corps volunteers are going to put on this fall. The camp, called “Celebrando el Este” will be a three day camp involving forty kids from all over the Eastern region of the country. At this camp the kids will learn about different countries and cultures and learn to identify and combat racism, gender discrimination and stereotyping through interactive workshops and activities. When they are finished with the conference they will be asked to return to their communities to coordinate activities and presentations related to the themes that are addressed over the course of the conference.
While the East has areas that are economically developed, the majority of the youth attending the conference hail from humble families where they have many hardships and few opportunities. Many times gender discrimination and racism are factors that contribute to these hardships. Here in the DR there is a complicated relationship between Dominicans, Haitians and their descendants. This includes blatant discrimination against Haitians and anyone that might have Haitian blood. This camp is an important opportunity for youth (of both Dominican and Haitian descent) to dialogue about current issues that they encounter in their communities. By doing so the camp's goal is to work towards the elimination of discrimination and promote understanding amongst youth and their communities. We hope that these youth will learn about other cultures and examine their own identities, and in doing so, begin to think beyond their neighborhoods and current lives and aspire towards a better future for themselves and their communities.
The campers themselves are required to raise funds to participate, however in this case we also rely heavily on individual donors such as yourselves to help cover the costs of food, lodging and transportation. If you’re able, please consider sponsoring a camper by donating money at the Peace Corps-sponsored link below. We are asking you for a small contribution to our cause in order to help fund this conference. Any amount would help us put on this very important camp. In order to donate, please go to the link https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=517-315 .
Sometimes the website may be down, so if it doesn’t work the first time, please try, try again! We would love to send donors Thank-You cards in appreciation of your generosity. If you would like to receive one, please be sure to fill out all the contact information on the donation web form.
Thanks in advance for your help!
Brianna, future Celebrando el Este campers and all the Eastern DR Peace Corps Volunteers
Monday, August 17, 2009
August 17th, 2009: Summer Days, Drinftin Away
Well the hot summer here has made me lazy and a bad blogger, but I’m back and ready to write! In my last entry my Escojo group had graduated and I was hoping that they would begin to give presentations and multiply the information that I had taught them. Well I learned the hard way that summer is not really the time to start anything new or ambitious—here in Las Pajas, since a lot of kids live with their grandmothers or aunts, the kids leave for the summer to go spend time with their real parents in the cities. Almost as soon as my Escojo group graduated, about half of them took off to the cities, leaving the rest of us in Las Pajas, struggling to plan activities. The same happened with my volleyball team—about half the girls disappeared during the entire month of July! After adjusting to the initial shock of a town with half as many kids as there used to be, I decided to adjust my plans for the summer, this is what I ended up doing during these months:
--The Peace Corps assigned me and two other volunteers who lived near me to coordinate the sub-regional Escojo conference in July. This gave us plenty of work since we had to plan the agenda, rent the space, organize transportation and food, etc… We decided the conference theme would be discrimination; kids from ten different communities sat through four different presentations on stereotypes, homophobia, sexism and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. I must say, I think we gave the kids something to think about, the discussions that took place during the homophobia presentation (a word most kids had never even heard of) and the sexism presentation were certainly interesting. In regards to homophobia, most kids ended up saying this: “If we can’t change them [meaning gay people] we should at least accept them and help them if they need it,” I guess we’re kind of getting somewhere….
--Volleyball, volleyball and more volleyball. Though a lot of the volleyball team took off to go visit mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, the girls who stuck around over the summer were bored, which meant that they arrived at my house around 3:30 every day asking to play volleyball (practices were supposed to be twice a week at 5 pm). We ended up playing almost every afternoon, occasionally playing with the boys as well, the only problem was the boys (ages 15-17) had no mercy for the girls, and would end up hitting the ball as hard as they could at them, without thinking that those techniques didn’t necessarily provide for a fun game. Eventually the girls told me that they didn’t want to play any more with the boys, so I kicked them out and told them to form their own team (which they have yet to do).
--A group who did stay around over the summer were the young mothers that I had began to meet with in March and April. Our meetings were canceled the entire month of May because it rained every day, so in June I decided to start up again. The women didn’t have a clear idea of what they wanted to do as a group, so I decided I would give a small course on reproductive health. We had four classes discussing reproductive organs, pregnancy, family planning and condoms. I think they all really enjoyed learning about new things and sharing advice and stories with each other.
--Towards the middle of the summer I began to realize that the younger kids were really really bored, and decided to start tutoring a few kids at my house who were behind in school. A large group of kids began coming, so we moved the classes to the community center and I began classes focused on several books that we have—For three days in a row we would read the same book and then do educational activities related to that book, such as math problems, practicing with vocabulary words, and an art project. The first week was great, I had two groups of about six kids each, one older and one younger and we read The Hungry Caterpillar and did activities with the book. The next week, a lot of parents had heard I was giving classes and so I ended up with three groups of about 10 kids each. I got some of my volleyball players to help me give classes, but it was a struggle to keep all the kids under control. By the third week kids ages three to twelve were showing up, and my volleyball girls got sick of helping, so it was me, trying to control thirty children who were running around and shrieking. I understood why their parents had sent them to me, they couldn’t stand them in the house any more! But I couldn’t get anything done either. Luckily for me, during that week a group of Canadians donated about twenty large boxes of toiletries and clothes that took up the entire community center, so I canceled classes saying that there was no room to do anything in the community center (whew!).
--I was lucky that I could use the donations to cancel classes, but the donations also created a lot of work for me and my project partner. The group of Canadians came and asked us to hand out all the donations in the best way we thought possible. This meant that every day for about a week we sorted through toiletries and clothes, trying to make sure that every family in town received the proper amount of toiletries and clothes. Of course, it’s impossible to make everybody happy, and by the end of the week I was so sick of people coming to my house asking me to change what they had received or asking more for more things. When the time came for me to leave for vacation (Argentina to visit Rakaia!) I had a cold, was exhausted, and so grateful for the chance to get on a plane and fly far, far away!
So that was my summer, now I'm preparing for volleyball tournaments, sports camps and the school year to come, which will involve teaching literacy and math to fourth graders, training and new group of Escojo kids, and some other projects here and there, I'll keep you all updated!
--The Peace Corps assigned me and two other volunteers who lived near me to coordinate the sub-regional Escojo conference in July. This gave us plenty of work since we had to plan the agenda, rent the space, organize transportation and food, etc… We decided the conference theme would be discrimination; kids from ten different communities sat through four different presentations on stereotypes, homophobia, sexism and discrimination against those living with HIV/AIDS. I must say, I think we gave the kids something to think about, the discussions that took place during the homophobia presentation (a word most kids had never even heard of) and the sexism presentation were certainly interesting. In regards to homophobia, most kids ended up saying this: “If we can’t change them [meaning gay people] we should at least accept them and help them if they need it,” I guess we’re kind of getting somewhere….
--Volleyball, volleyball and more volleyball. Though a lot of the volleyball team took off to go visit mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles, the girls who stuck around over the summer were bored, which meant that they arrived at my house around 3:30 every day asking to play volleyball (practices were supposed to be twice a week at 5 pm). We ended up playing almost every afternoon, occasionally playing with the boys as well, the only problem was the boys (ages 15-17) had no mercy for the girls, and would end up hitting the ball as hard as they could at them, without thinking that those techniques didn’t necessarily provide for a fun game. Eventually the girls told me that they didn’t want to play any more with the boys, so I kicked them out and told them to form their own team (which they have yet to do).
--A group who did stay around over the summer were the young mothers that I had began to meet with in March and April. Our meetings were canceled the entire month of May because it rained every day, so in June I decided to start up again. The women didn’t have a clear idea of what they wanted to do as a group, so I decided I would give a small course on reproductive health. We had four classes discussing reproductive organs, pregnancy, family planning and condoms. I think they all really enjoyed learning about new things and sharing advice and stories with each other.
--Towards the middle of the summer I began to realize that the younger kids were really really bored, and decided to start tutoring a few kids at my house who were behind in school. A large group of kids began coming, so we moved the classes to the community center and I began classes focused on several books that we have—For three days in a row we would read the same book and then do educational activities related to that book, such as math problems, practicing with vocabulary words, and an art project. The first week was great, I had two groups of about six kids each, one older and one younger and we read The Hungry Caterpillar and did activities with the book. The next week, a lot of parents had heard I was giving classes and so I ended up with three groups of about 10 kids each. I got some of my volleyball players to help me give classes, but it was a struggle to keep all the kids under control. By the third week kids ages three to twelve were showing up, and my volleyball girls got sick of helping, so it was me, trying to control thirty children who were running around and shrieking. I understood why their parents had sent them to me, they couldn’t stand them in the house any more! But I couldn’t get anything done either. Luckily for me, during that week a group of Canadians donated about twenty large boxes of toiletries and clothes that took up the entire community center, so I canceled classes saying that there was no room to do anything in the community center (whew!).
--I was lucky that I could use the donations to cancel classes, but the donations also created a lot of work for me and my project partner. The group of Canadians came and asked us to hand out all the donations in the best way we thought possible. This meant that every day for about a week we sorted through toiletries and clothes, trying to make sure that every family in town received the proper amount of toiletries and clothes. Of course, it’s impossible to make everybody happy, and by the end of the week I was so sick of people coming to my house asking me to change what they had received or asking more for more things. When the time came for me to leave for vacation (Argentina to visit Rakaia!) I had a cold, was exhausted, and so grateful for the chance to get on a plane and fly far, far away!
So that was my summer, now I'm preparing for volleyball tournaments, sports camps and the school year to come, which will involve teaching literacy and math to fourth graders, training and new group of Escojo kids, and some other projects here and there, I'll keep you all updated!
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