VISIONS Dominican Republic

  Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo

Duration of Program: 2-4 weeks
Dates: June 30 - July 27, August 4 - 24

Description: Visions offers teenagers opportunities for ambitious service work and cross-cultural immersion in the United States and abroad. We work with and for intercultural communities that lack financial and other development resources. Through service, authentic experience, and active exploration, we encourage new perspectives and dynamic learning.

Crushing poverty is a fact of life in the Dominican Republic where unemployment is staggering and the average salary is about 60 dollars a month. So precarious is the economy that the nation rations electricity in its most impoverished neighborhoods by shutting down power for up to 10 hours each day.

Santo Domingo, the capital and oldest city in the New World, is the country's most prosperous and populated and arguably neediest region. Visions has two home bases in the Dominican Republic. Our oldest site, where we have lived and worked since 1992 is Sabana Perdida, a section of Santo Domingo 40 minutes from its epicenter. Our other site is Santa Fe, a small coastal town on the outskirts of San Pedro de Marcoris just over one hour from the capital. For nearly a century until the late 1990s, Santa Fe was a sugar mill town surrounded by state-operated sugar plantations, dotted with bateyes (where the mostly Haitian sugar cutters live). When the mill shut down, the community began a descent into hard economic times.

Despite overwhelming, incessant need, the joy of this country is in its resilient, vibrant populace. You will encounter Dominicans from all walks of life: students, teachers, health and development workers, farmers and other laborers, government officials. You will meet new friends in Santa Fe or ones of long-standing in Sabana Perdida such as Santiago, our gua gua (bus) driver; Victorina, our cook; the Ramos family and other members of the local Lions Club with whom we collaborate annually, and many jovenes who have literally grown up around Visions groups in the summer.

Highlights: Your service work will be masonry construction of a school or home, organizing and supervising Campamento activities for young children. Our home base in Sabana Perdida is Melvin Jones School, which Visions participants built. Past participants have built a medical clinic; several public schools; built, re-built and renovated housing; created a public park with benches and play structures. Campamento de Juveniles is a day camp initiated by past participants that we operate seasonally. We undertake similar projects in Santa Fe where the colegio (public school) serves as our home base.

On our free evenings and in the afternoons, we enjoy all the country has to offer: visits to colorful, aromatic markets, strolls along narrow stone streets of Santo Domingo's historic colonial section, dancing to merengue at Cuacara Taina Discoteque. The white sand beaches and clear blue waters are perfect for snorkeling and swimming. We play baseball, bowl, visit museums and cultural centers. An overnight trip into the interior breaks up our stay, as do hikes into the Dominican Alps and to a spectacular fresh water pool fed by waterfalls. You will also enjoy a two-day home stay hosted by a Dominican family from our local community.

A summer in the Dominican Republic will be demanding, eye-opening, and immensely rewarding.

Participants in this program must have a minimum of two years of high school Spanish or the equivalent proficiency.

Cost in US$: 4400, 3500

Experience Required: no

Participants Travel to Dominican Republic in Groups

Typically Participants Work in Groups of 24

Scholarships are Available.

Application Process Involves:

• Physical Exam/Health Records
• Written Application

Post Services Include:

• Alumni Network

Visions Service Adventures's Mission Statement: VISIONS offers teenagers opportunities for ambitious service work and cross-cultural immersion in the United States and abroad. We work with and for intercultural communities that lack financial and other development resources. Through service, authentic experience, and active exploration, we encourage new perspectives and dynamic learning.

Year Founded: 1989