- Pants RD$ 200 to 300
- Skirts RD$ 180 to 300
- NO-name Shirts / Polo Shirts RD$ 120 to 200
- Name (School logo) Shirts / Polo Shirts RD$ 250 to 320 (the school get's a kick back)
- Shoes RD$ 180 (useless) over around RD$ 500 (OK) to over 1000 &up (sometimes good, sometimes just about OK too).
- Gym attire (blue gym pants and white shirt) RD$ 380 to 600.
- Gym shoes RD$ 280 (pulga) to 400.
- White socks Priceless
Keep in mind that poor families live in neighborhoods where they don't get water every day and may not have a Tinaco (plastic water tank - reservoir) and thus can not always wash cloths as needed. Same happens with the electric power (wash machine won't work without it). So they need at least TWO sets of pants/skirts and tops (Shirt or Polo), so that they can rotate clean clothes.
I set up "my" girls with 3 sets, so the "mother" can not argue that the lack of clean cloths was a good reason not to have sent them to school. I just spent about RD$ 2000 each to dress'em up (small stuff, like panties, the socks etc included, shirts school labeled and usable quality shoes).
Books and supplies another RD$ 6000 each. I am one of the few who sends them to school with everything they have on the list, also the community items like soap(s), towel(s) etc... which Dominican parents can't resist not buying in their urge to be smart and have their kids learn to just use what the others bring.
Decent schools will sell some kind of snack and drink for around RD$ 30 a pop/day during recess. Some parents will send their kids with something to snack along, and sometimes the just won't send their kids to school for a day or more, because there was no money to send them something along with and they don't want to be "ashamed" ("
... me da cosa de mandarla asi sin na'!" Rather have'm miss school than in anyway appear poor). You can't give the parents the money, they will never have it left for their kids after the weekend or prefer to spend it on very, very important hair makeovers instead of what it was meant for.
School bus can run RD$ a couple of hundreds to 1700 / month depending on quality (reliability) and distance. They bill for 10 months.
Most kids of families with poor or nonexistent educational background WILL NEED to do be set up to do their home work at an after school class ("
escuelita"). There are many, in most neighborhoods. They won't do it at home because nobody will ask them to, supervise them or be able to help them... maybe there is no clean table available either.
Most young kids here WILL WANT to go to school. Especially if it is a relatively good school where they don't get beaten up or face stupid "teachers".
The problem usually is the family, ranging from older already numbed siblings to their friendly but just as ignorant and compulsive stupid parents.
Many parents won't do anything toward their kids "free" education if there is not something in it for them too.
You want to do something successful, be prepared to face
an almost full time job... mostly fighting the family.
But the basic thing to remember before you start is, that if you GIVE money, you just LOST money. The only thing that you will receive in return is twofold, repeated visits with new ideas on how to extort more money from you (as they lost it too) and you being labeled a
Palomo.
... J-D.