Featured Program - July 2008  

Service For Peace – Model Elementary Schools Program

Adapted by Katherine Felt from “Service For Peace and the Model School Program” by Gareth Davies, Service for Peace

In the village of Frasquito Gomez in the Dominican Republic, the elementary school now boasts a safe, grass-covered playground, freshly painted classrooms with tiled floors, and flushing toilets. It is a haven for education and literacy, allowing the community as a whole to benefit from its recent improvements. This was not always true – before the volunteers from Service For Peace (SFP) arrived, none of this was possible. The hard work of a group of high school and college students from the US and the Dominican Republic (DR) transformed this elementary school, and in turn both the community and the volunteers themselves were transformed.

Service For Peace’s “Model Elementary School Program” began in 2005, utilizing youth volunteers to target one of the crucial problems in the cycle of poverty in rural Latin American communities:  a lack of education. Universal elementary education is Goal #2 of the eight Millennium Development Goals developed by the United Nations in 2000.  It is vital because a literate population allows important information on issues such as health and nutrition, to be disseminated easily. In pursuit of this goal, SFP signed an agreement with the Ministry of Education of the DR to create a model elementary school as a pilot project that would be duplicated in other communities in subsequent years. After identifying a suitable community and school about an hour outside the capital of Santo Domingo, SFP staff members met with the community leaders in the village of Frasquito Gomez to assess needs and priorities and to explain SFP’s purpose and plans. To ensure continued growth and maximum results on the project, SFP established partnerships with government ministries, NGOs, colleges, foundations and corporations.

The twenty-six youth volunteers came from higher learning institutions in the US and DR. Working side by side, they were able to drastically expand and improve the elementary school facilities. Simultaneously, the volunteers built relationships with the children and community members of Frasquito Gomez and with one another.  “The thing which was most moving about our experience was the relationships I created with the participants as well as the kids. Seeing and playing with the kids day after day really motivated me to work harder and harder, and the support I got from the participants as well as local volunteers had the same effect,” said Jina Hamad, a high school student from New York. The immersion into the community was beneficial for everyone involved. As Yudi Estévez Duvergé, a student from the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo described, “seeing the faces of happiness and satisfaction of the people - that you help makes you feel immensely happy in a way that cannot be explained.”

The project has allowed for dramatic changes within the community, including an adult literacy program that was launched at the El Baden Elementary School after the renovations were complete. In September, three new computers will be delivered to the school, thanks to the generous support of the First Lady, Margarita Cedeno de Fernandez. At the same time, a technology-training course will begin for the teachers and others.  Further changes are being made, and the program aims to continue to expand its work and impact. There are many people who want to be involved in this effort on different levels. Through a focused and determined effort, a small change has had a substantial impact.

Dorry Guerra, a high school student from New York, certainly felt its effect: “I got to witness and experience what a small group of determined people can accomplish. As a group I believe that we bettered the lives of many individuals, through working on the school and essentially the whole community of El Cidral. And as an individual, I have never been more inspired.”