Family, students, and friends are keeping lights on in several public schools. More than 2,400 students are paying the fuel bill at the Santa Ana school in Gualey and Las Palmas. The famous Juan Pablo Duarte school is like a lighthouse in the middle of the Villa Consuelo section of Santo Domingo. Jose Rivera, the school’s principal, said that they have spent as much as RD$7,300 to fill the diesel tanks for the emergency generator. Parents and students have collected RD$71,000 for the students at Santa Ana in Gualey and the generosity of the people in Las Palmas brought in RD$30,000 to feed the hungry generators and keep the schools open.
Many students feel that it is better to go around collecting RD$10 pesos from their fellow students than it is to repeat what happened back in January when they had to take their mid-term exams by candlelight.
And back in November, the Luis Eduardo Aybar Hospital (the Morgan) allowed the Republic of Honduras school to connect to their lines and stay open during blackout hours.
There is another problem, however, and that is the fact that the schools seldom fulfill their assigned hours of class since the dark streets represent a dangerous place of the young people to be walking a ten in the evening. As a result, in spite of their efforts the children are receiving less than the official number of hours of class.