The DR hosts more than 3.5 MILLION tourists annually...
If just a tiny percentage of those visitors visit local schools...
Envision this...
- Two tourists per day take it on themselves to visit a particular local school.
- Each visit takes only ten minutes.
When you do the math - this costs the school children 20 minutes per day or 100 minutes per week or approximately 4000 minutes per 40 week school year. Well intentioned tourists have just cost each of 20 - 40 children somewhere between one and two WEEKS of class time - time that they can ill afford to lose.
Please ask yourselves:
Is it more important that I get to directly see the benefits of my donation(s) or is it more important to keep the children at their studies?
This is why Beyond the Beach discourages direct contact between well intentioned, generous tourists and the local recipients of this generosity. In addition this has the side benefit of minimizing any possibility of bad feelings due to wide disparities between locals and tourists. Local parents don't need inquiring children to ask why tourists have so much and we have so little.
Please seek out local charities and local contacts who can distribute your gifts from the heart at the most appropriate times so as to provide the least possible disruption. I and others can help point you in the right direction or you can find groups of your own preference.
In Cabarete I recommend the DREAM Project. From Villa Taina at the west end of Cabarete walk across the street, head toward Banco Progreso, follow the alley back to the last office on the right and that's where you'll find them. Their normal office hours are 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Thanks for thinking of the kids.
Gregg