About this Adventure – Part 1

Life is a Journey

— Oscar Wilde.

This trip has been a year in the making. Actually, it’s been about 12 years in the making. We’ve been traveling to the north shore of the Dominican Republic to vacation with our family. The people are amazing here and we’ve always wanted to give back to this community. We finally found a way.

This fall we are volunteering at the Mariposa DR Foundation (https://mariposadrfoundation.org/our-vision). The Mariposa Center for Girls is an innovative learning center that invests in the education of youth whose reality otherwise is crushing poverty. Their mission is to educate and empower adolescent girls to create sustainable solutions to end generational poverty.

Mariposa is working to support local Dominican families and provide an education to young girls. In this town, public school is only offered for a few hours a day and many young girls end up working to support their families rather than going to school. They grow up without the education or skills they need to escape of the cycle of generational poverty. According to Mariposa, “Major contributions to the cycle of poverty are adolescent pregnancy and child marriage; in the Dominican Republic over 40% become mothers as teens and 28% are girls 11-15 have at least one unwanted pregnancy.” Having two daughters of our own, this is unimaginable. The Mariposa Foundation opened a school where local girls are provided meals (70% of their daily food), healthcare and the opportunity to stay in school. Volunteers are now helping to grow the schools program.

This is blog is about our Dominican journey.