DREAM Project: Dominican Republic Education and Mentoring Project

Alta Gracia Learning Center

Project Specifics:

Name of Project: Alta Gracia Learning Center
Location: Los Marranitos, Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic
Type of Facility: Privately run Enrichment/Literacy Library on a sustainable coffee farm in the Dominican Republic
Ownership: Owned by author Julia Alvarez and physician and farmer Bill Eichner, her husband
DREAM Start date at Project: June, 2005
Current DREAM Volunteer: Caroline Stauffer, World Leadership Corps volunteer and Middlebury College graduate. Read Caroline's blog at http://carolinedr.blogspot.com
Special Donors: Julia Alvarez and husband Bill Eichner

Project Overview:

Alta Gracia first started when Julia Alvarez and her husband Bill Eichner went to the mountains of the Dominican Republic to work with a group of small farmers in the mountains of the Cordillera Central in the Dominican Republic. The farmers, unable to afford pesticides, were fighting to keep their farms. By default, they were growing coffee, the local cash crop, organically and under the shade in a small mountain village near Los Dajaos.

Bill, who grew up farming in Nebraska, had a soft spot for farmers in a plight. In his own childhood, he had seen the disappearance of small family farms. When these Dominican farmers asked them to help, Bill and Julia bought some of the local abandoned farm lands, reforested them and joined the efforts of this small farming community to get their coffee into lucrative first world markets. Bill and Julia felt committed to help further the grassroots movement to save the land from deforestation and the pesticides of the big agribusiness plantations.

Once the sustainable coffee farm was in place, Julia and Bill dreamed of establishing an arts center on the village near the property. They quickly realized the problems of poor education and illiteracy must be addressed before any such project could begin. Los Marranitos is a small village consisting of around 38 homes and 165 people. Students are required to attend the local public school in order to earn a certificate, but real learning is rare. Nearly 1/3 of all children living in this community aged 5-19 are not attending school and those who are attending the public school have to walk over 6 kilometers in order to attend the nearest school in Los Dajaos.

Bill and Julia soon started a small library on the farm, named after the national Virgencita de la Alta Gracia. They chose the name Alta Gracia, “High Grace”, to represent the new center of opportunity for the community living high in the mountains. Over the years, they recruited volunteers from Dartmouth and Middlebury College to open the library and offer additional classes. The library now has more than 500 books and various other educational materials.

A connection with DREAM developed over the years and in 2006 the two kindred paths were joined as Alta Gracia became an official DREAM site. With the help of Dunn Family Charitable Foundation and World Leadership Corps, DREAM was able to place a fulltime volunteer to work with this community for the 2006-2007 academic year. By opening the enrichment center, it is DREAM’s hope that volunteers will be able to provide the community with learning resources and opportunities by developing specialized classes tailored to the community’s unique needs and desires.

Project Timeline

2005/2006

DREAM forms partnership with World Leadership Corps, Middlebury College and the Jay Dunn Charitable Family Foundation

DREAM accepts Caroline Stauffer as the 2006 World Leadership Corps volunteer placement

Program Goals:

Literacy for all is the central goal. Due to the remote location, the nearest public school is an hour walk for many of the children. We hope to empower the youth and create young leaders who will be able to develop and maintain more accessible opportunities for education by creating a local Girl Scout Troop and women’s groups. It is our long-term goal that the community members themselves can help run the local library.

Program Needs:

2007/2008

Volunteers: DREAM is seeking long-term volunteers to live and work within the community

Materials: This site is still in need of books and general school supplies

Computers: Due to the current electricity situation, the best computers for this site would be VTech Language Learning Notebook, which can be purchased at Radio Shack for $100 each with additional batteries.