Visiting a boys´ orphanage

St. Don Bosco watches the reception area
I am in the Dominican Republic this week viewing some of the charity operations performed by Food for the Poor, a 25-year-old charity based in Coconut Creek, Fla., that was recently tabbed as the second-largest international charity in the United States by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Our trip began with visits to orphanages. The first was a girls’ orphanage run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul (scroll down the page for details). That was followed by a trip to a boys’ orphanage run by the Salesian priests.

Hogar Escuela Santo Domingo Salvio, first built in 1954 as a reform school, was taken over by the Salesians in 1955 and changed to the facility it is today. About 300 boys ages 8-17 attend the school, and approximately 2/3 live there. According to Father Luis Duran Duran, school director, the amount of children in the Dominican Republic that are abandoned is very high, causing great need for minors in his country.

My dinner hosts
Upon arrival at the orphanage, we were greeted with a meal hosted by the Salesians and the students. I sat with five genial 11- and 12-year-old boys, who were happy to make conversation and share their meal of rice and chicken along with boiled bananas. A couple of the boys play baseball, a burgeoning sport in the Dominican Republic. However, baseball apparently still doesn’t hold a candle to soccer in this country, as all the boys expressed their passion for the beautiful game.

The purpose of the school is to provide academic and vocational training so the boys, when they leave at the age of 17, can enter the workforce. Funding is an issue, and Father Duran Duran (pictured) said the Dominican government gave the orphanage no money for the first five months of this year.

“This was a very difficult year because the government gave no aid whatsoever,” he said.

According to the Salesian, his order threatened to close the orphanage and alerted the press. He said the pressure caused the government to relent, though he said the monthly stipend of 200,000 Dominican Pesos (roughly $7,000 total) does not even cover half the costs for each student (which would total more than 400,000 pesos). The orphanage relies on donations from private charities such as FFP.

Dorm at the orphanage
Father Duran Duran said boys live in four dormitories, arranged by age group. Every morning, the five priests who live in the rectory at the orphanage celebrate Mass for each dormitory. The Salesians are planning a new dormitory building and want to open a major seminary (the orphanage has produced four priests, and four seminarians are in formation). Father Duran Duran told us the orphanage is looking for teachers and medical professionals who are willing to volunteer for a year. They also are hoping to have engineers and architects volunteer to help design and construction of new buildings. According to Father Duran Duran, this is pressing due to structural issues at the orphanage in addition to related safety problems that have arisen from a freeway that was constructed close to the existing orphanage buildings.

He said 62 boys at the orphanage have one parent who has died. Another 11 are orphaned by both deceased parents. The remainder have two living parents and have been abandoned for a number of reasons, among them the financial strain of raising a child.

I probably won´t be able to post again until Thursday. But I promise some good posts then.