Posted: 10th May 2019
At the beginning of last month a corporate team departed on their mission to the Dominican Republic to assist the building of a new 2-classroom block, supported by Go MAD – the local charity project partner. Turley Charitable Trust, the charitable arm of Turley Planning – the UK’s largest town planning company – send a mission team every year with Mission Direct, alternating between Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic and have previously helped to build classrooms, community centres and homes.
The team in April was the first in many years to comprise of all first-timers and was joined by Gemma Gardner from the Mission Direct UK office.
Working in Mozovi, a new village location for MD, the team assisted local builders to build a 2-class block – from foundation to basic structure. Villages like Mozovi and Severet are very remote – in the middle of the beautiful green countryside of the DR, but despite its beauty, they are isolated. In the 1980’s the Dominican was the world’s 4th largest producer of sugar and it was the country’s main source of income. Originally built to accommodate workers of the fields for the sugar cane industry, these villages were left destitute when the industry collapsed overnight in the 90’s. Connected only by barely-accessible dirt roads, people here are limited to being able to travel long distances to gain education or seek employment.
The children in Mozovi currently had a school of two small classrooms and although the Dominican Government have pledged to enable all children to have full-time education, funding teachers to support this, there is little or no funding for facilities. With only two classrooms, the children could only attend in shifts – the younger ones in the morning and older years in the afternoons.
During the 10-day trip, whilst the MD/Turley team were hard at work, the Go MAD partners were visited by some Canadians who were so impressed and moved with what the team were doing that they decided to fund a 5th classroom!
Not only that, but Turley are set to exceed their fundraising target for the project, hopefully enabling Go MAD to facilitate the build of a kitchenette/dining area for the children here to eat at school.
Another example that shows that a 2-week mission is so much more than bricks and mortar. You never know the ripple effects your presence and example will create…
Hear Alice from the team talk about their experience…
Thank you Turley!
Why not join a team this summer to help the school in neighbouring village, Severet, to expand their building and enable them to provide facilities for older school years?
