Our goal is to go where the need is.

Our work should not and will not be limited to one country, our organization looks to address the needs of children in countries around the world.

Current Projects:

Dominican Republic

According to the statistics included in a report issued by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL) entitled ‘Latin America Social Panorama 2006’, specific to the Dominican Republic,

• in 2000, 46.9% of the population was poor and 22.1% were in a state of indulgence.  
  
• Two years later, poverty indexes declined to 44.9%, with indulgence at 20.3%.
  
• Yet, from 2002 to 2005, poverty augmented from 44.9 percent to 47.5.  
• Simultaneously, the unemployment rate rose progressively from 13.9 percent to 16.5 during this same period.  

Effects of Poverty on young adults:

• Young people suffered malnutrition in greater numbers.
  
• They dropped out of school and were more likely to participate in crime and violence.
  
• Youth unemployment rose to nearly 35 percent. 
  
• The report also states that at the same time, the school system remained one of the least effective in Latin America and the Caribbean.
• About 8 percent of young people age 15 to 24 are illiterate.
  
• Census data from 2002 indicates 762,000 young people between 15 and 29—33 percent of the population—had not completed basic education.
  
• Some 913,000 of 20- to 29-year olds—62%—had not finished secondary school. 
  
• Many drop out of school at age 12 or 13 because they need to earn money for their families.

Children work in busy intersections and street lights selling flowers to feed their families. School and education are last on their priority list.

The above picture is of a 14 year old child who sells flowers at traffic lights, in hopes to make enough money for his grandmother and little sister.

These two children, ages 11 and 12, are from a town called Villa Liberacion in the capital of the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 

They attend school in the afternoon and work at night cleaning windshields at traffic lights.  On their way to work, their flip flops broke which forced them to work barefooted and walk back home the same way.