Dominican Republic Mission
Dominican Republic – Trade School Construction
With donations of over $110,000 during the past several years and after two successful mission trips to Consuelo in June and July, the first floor of the trade school at Iglesia San Gabriel is almost finished and ready for students. A partnership of St. John’s Church and the congregation in Consuelo with the Diocese of the Dominican Republic, the trade school is being created to offer young people in the town the chance to learn skills necessary for jobs that will lead them out of poverty. Skills include trades such as electrical and plumbing work as well as languages and computer skills for jobs in the hotel industry and business. In addition to the school building, St. John’s Church has also provided funds for a generator and for a cistern.
DR Trade School Opening on the Horizon!
By Susan R. Sowers, Summer Seminarian
Primed and ready to go! Our first team for this summer just returned with broad smiles and reports of renewed friendships with our sister parish – San Gabriel’s of the Dominican Republic. Combined with some cultural exchanges, this team successfully completed the sanding and priming of the new trade school. Our partnership with San Gabriel’s of Consuelo goes back almost a decade. In recent years, we raised the capital to build the first of two floors of a trade school as a means of economic growth and training for future employment for the people of Consuelo. Truly exciting work – as we see an earlier dream actually come to fruition!
The team experienced something important, and what a team it was – the Keller ladies (Beverly, Maggie and Meredith), Chris Kloman, John Joy, Brian Hinchcliff –all of whom welcomed me from the beginning. I am always impressed at how the Spirit calls and assembles just the right folks for the task at hand. Many thanks to this team who happily took vacation time to “carry the water” for St. John’s Church.
The second team for the summer will go down in early July to do the final detail work of painting the classrooms in a two-tone design requested by the new priest, the Reverend Ramon Ubiera Torres. By then the flooring will have been put in and our team will add the final touches of paint before the plumbing fixtures and electrical outlets are installed prior to the opening of the school in September.
St. John’s Church has raised the necessary $110,000 to build the first floor – expected to be completed within $1,000 of the original budget estimate made by the bishop’s architect and managed by the local priest. An additional $14,000 in furnishings is needed in order to open the school. Contributions to the DR School Fund are always welcome.
Join the Dollar-a-Day Campaign for a Trade School in the Dominican Republic
The trade school in Consuelo, where unemployment if often as high as 90%, will provide vocational education and training to enable employment in areas such as building trades, small business, service industry requiring a second language, and manufacturing.
To find out more about the school, speak with Pete Metzger, Chairperson of the Committee to Build a School in Consuelo, or Tara-Jeanne Demarest, Co-Chair of the Missions Committee.
Let's finish the trade school in Consuelo together! The school can open in September 2009 if 300 individuals give a dollar a day. Download the Dollar-a-Day Pledge card (PDF).
Walls are rising with hard work.
Completed foundation is surveyed by Pete Metzger.
