Helping Street Kids In The Dominican Republic

As I speak French, Spanish, Italian and English I found communicating with the local people to be very easy, and I seemed to blend into the local cultural: whether I was wearing a sari in India, eating sushi with chopsticks in Japan or salsa dancing on the streets in Cuba.

This past year, I spent six months in the Dominican Republic. I have had experience working with street children in other third world nations such as Bolivia and Honduras and knew in my heart that’s what I wanted to do during my stay in the Dominican Republic.

At first, I met the children by the gasoline station they used to hang out at, and began talking to them about Canada and other countries I had visited. My stories peaked their interest and a small crowd of children gathered around me to hear more. Some of them were hungry, so I bought them Oreo cookies (which they had never tried before) and our friendship grew from there. Soon, the kids had found out that I lived fairly close to the gas station (approx 1 kilometer) Several children even followed me home so that I could give them proper classes and they could sit on chairs instead of sitting on concrete. A few weeks later, a Spanish literacy class started out of my small apartment in Punta Cana.

The children came ready for class almost seven days a week. I would start by giving them lunch if they hadn’t eaten yet (which was the case more frequently than not) in order for them to be mentally prepared to study. Shortly after, the classes would begin, usually by asking them to recite the alphabet, which proved harder for them to do than I thought.