The 4-H camp has become a summer highlight for the Punta Cana community, inquiries about registration are made weeks in advance of any official announcements and for the Ecological Foundation this represents a time for us to reach out to the younger community members and introduce them to our facilities and what we do here. Yet each year Carol, Christine and I brainstorm months in advance about ways to expand the program beyond the boundaries of affluent Punta Cana to incorporate more children from the surrounding worker communities into the camp and also expand the community service project to reach more people in need. From a logistical standpoint these dual goals of incorporating the community and servicing the community on a more profound and impactful level are the most difficult things to accomplish.
Thanks to several last minute cash donations, the 4-H program was able to pay a local taxi service to bring in 19 school children from “Barrio Domingo Maiz”, a small community within Veron where the Ecological Foundation and the Peace Corps are working on various community based water treatment and waste management projects. These students, who would rarely have the opportunity to venture outside of Veron, were bussed in daily to participate in the 4-H Camp with children from the more affluent town of Punta Cana. The 4-H Camp’s arts and crafts work, games and excursions allowed both groups of children to seamlessly surmount socioeconomic barriers that would normally prevent them from simply playing, let alone interacting on a more profound level. Peace Corps volunteer Kayla Mollet, who works with the children who participated in the 4-H Camp, reported that the camp was the talk of the community for days afterwards and inquiries were already being made about next year’s program.
For this years’ service project the visiting 4-H’ers worked with the Punta Cana – Bavaro Rortary Club to repair 70 school desks that will be donated to Escuela Cajuil, the only school servicing the rural community of Macao. After working on this project the 4-H group drove out to the school in Macao and personally handed out school supplies to the children and headmaster there. Afterwards we continued on to the urban barrio of Villa Esperanza in Veron where the group made their annual donation of school supplies to Colegio Elizabeth and finally school supplies were left for the school children in Barrio Domingo Maiz. In year’s past the 4-H Camp was only able to donate materials to Colegio Elizabeth, however, this year we were able to reach two new schools representing not just a broader geographic focus (the schools in question are approximately 10 - 20 miles apart) but also a significant difference in the types of poverty afflicting each community (rural vs. urban).
Throughout the calendar year I have the opportunity to work with over a dozen student programs from nine different universities from the United States. In each of those programs I can confidently say that it is the foreign students who gain more than they give by participating in their programs, although the impact on the local community cannot be underestimated. By continually striving to have the programs reach more people and impact the community in more meaningful ways these programs create a win-win scenario that benefits not only the locals but also provides the students with a more profound learning experience. Speaking on behalf of the Puntacana Ecological Foundation and the Punta Cana - Bavaro Rotary Club I can assure you that this year’s program reached more people in both the camp initiative and their service work than ever before.
Thank you and we look forward to working with Virginia 4-H again next year.
Contributed by Ben Hulefeld, Logistical Coordinator, Puntacana Ecological Foundation
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