With open hearts and minds, the Blue House Effect team traveled to La Ureña in the Dominican Republic in August 2006. With full hearts and flooded minds, we returned. It was a powerful trip. After six days with the children, the teacher and assistant teachers from three schools, the women in crisis group and others, it was a challenge to step back into our comfortable North American lives.

We worked in teams: one group ran daily activities with the poorest of the poor children in a social program created by Dominica Rosario, whom the whole village called "Dominica". Dominica was herself an orphan, and in the 1970s, at age 14, she became the first student from the third world to participate in an educational exchange sponsored by a Rotary Club in New Jersey. Upon her return to the Dominican Republic, she and her brother were selected by the head of her home orphanage to run a new orphanage in La Ureña, an impoverished village to the east of Santo Domingo. She was 19 and her brother Alexis was 17 and the the two of them cared for 31 orphaned children in the same area where we no go to help. Eventually she was sponsored to attend university in New Jersey and returned with a new vision to also open a school. Today this school educates 300 children, most of whom can pay nothing towards the costs of their education, not even one peso.

The second team worked with the Dominican teachers on strategies for the new school year.  Offering an integrated series of workshops on planning, assessment, differentiated instruction and very practical ideas for the instruction of mathematics, the group quickly bonded and an open exchange of ideas transpired.  Just as teachers here appreciate coming away from a workshop with useful ideas and free classroom materials, the Dominican teachers were excited to receive white boards, markers, cards for math facts, and other items for use in September.  On the last day, every teacher and assistant stood individually, and in words overwhelmed with emotion, expressed deep gratitude and appreciation for this newly formed learning partnership.

On every Blue House Effect trip, there are also building projects and repairs.  The third team fixed the water purification system which we had installed in January.  It had blown a solenoid during a power surge.  The electricity functions sporadically in La Ureña, and a surge protector was also added.  Because of the increase in enrollment, Dominica requested the building of room dividers so every available space can be turned into classrooms.  BHE provided the materials and labor to build these dividers.  Allana Featherstone investigated the site of a possible home build for next year.

Another highlight of the trip was a bumpy, ride to Santo Domingo to buy school uniforms and textbooks for the children.  We rented a bus which, as the spirit would have it, said, "Jesus Loves You" on the front and our wonderful Dominican driver, Francis, navigated through incorrigible traffic, impassible roads jammed with dilapidated vehicles to a store called California.  Three of the Dominican teachers, each with a list, guided us through the departments in our designated shopping groups.  After an hour, we had eight shopping carts piled high with white dress shirts, navy pants, backpacks and textbooks.  The bill totaled almost 89,000 pesos ($3,063 CDN).  Funds for this particular purchase were raised at the Blue House Effect Charity Horse Show in July 2006.

The needs in La Ureña are immense and another Blue House Effect team will return in February 2007.  Some will build a house, a few will visit the classrooms to reconnect with the teachers and assist with implementation of the new ideas and materials.  Others will adapt to the immediate needs as expressed by Dominica and help in what ever way is possible.  Always we will feed the children and sing and play with them.  Their joy is an inspiration and the love reflected back in their deep brown eyes is immeasurable.  Our goal is to help the village become self sufficient through education, improved health and social programs.

Blue House Effect of Canada is a non-profit organization.  In an inspiring way, many people have rallied around this small charity and assisted with trips and donations.  ?all have shared in the vision of this opportunity to connects with our Dominican neighbors in practical, grassroots ways.  In March 2004, a team of nine people built a small wooden house with a tin roof to replace a dilapidated shanty in which a teacher named Ydelkis, her two children and two orphaned children lived.  In an attempt to continuously fill a need for adequate foster homes for orphans, Dominica asked Allana Featherstone to find people to rebuild this house and the call was answered.  Upon completion of the house, which Ydelkis had requested be painted blue inside and out, Ydelkis wrote a thank you letter to the team.  She called this house her dream home and the seeds of the “Blue House Effect?began.  The building of the home had a powerful effect on the team and also on the people who would live in it.  When you open up your heart and give of your time and talents, a transformation occurs.  The world becomes smaller and we are united in a synergistic energy.  It is our desire to, "Cause a positive effect for life"  through kindness and caring.

Val Morrison
BHE Trustee