Child sponsorship letter from Santo Domingo (Los Jardines)
26/09/2008
Update from Summer 2007
Dear Sponsor:
Once again this summer we want to share with you our best news about our facility Los Jardines but we want to thank you in advance for all your help through out all these years, we hope you enjoy the report and we look forward to any future visit to our facility, we and all the children here would be more than glad to show it to you.
We have in total 151 Children this summer, we recently open a new house which is house #10, we have in total now 16 family units each one of them have around 8-10 children as usual, the new mother of house 10 is Deisy she is so happy about that, she was an auntie and she was chosen to lead that house now, she has 10 children there and all of them are so happy with her.
All our children went to the beach and to summer camps this summer, most of them also visited their relatives who lives in other cities, most of them love that because this is a way they don’t break that bond among their families at all. This village has been immersed on Environment activities all this summer, we joined our facility to another NGO who usually visits us in order to teach our children the importance of taking care of our environment and also give them ideas to protect it.
Some of our children have also being transferred to SOS Youth House and most of them are so happy cause at last they are getting closer to their independency as it is the case of Maria from house 11 she was so happy cause she at last can wear some fashions clothes and at last she wont be wearing that type of clothes she used to wear while in the village which was childish as she is now becoming a pretty adolescent.
Activities for the year
We celebrated SOS day in this village, we were chosen this year for that magnanimous activity, a very long cherished one for all the children, we had the visit of different clowns, we have a big party at the hall and we had lots of sweets and cultural games. Most of our children participated on different lectures given by teachers from different schools of Santo Domingo about our Ecosystem and environment protection. Some other topics were also about how to behave properly at home and at official meetings, how to respect elders and the importance of being Dominican and living in this beautiful island.
We also had some challenges this summer as it is the case of Billy from house 11 who suffers from asthma and who was interned for a period of one week for a intensive treatment, Billy could not sleep and he felt weak. Thanks God he is more stable now and it is not something we have to worry about due to he is under proper care with good doctors.
Our installation still faces same problems as previous years: water filtering in our roofs. This problem is being solved thanks to constant effort to re-build them and is that they are old and the material it was primarily built is loosing consistency.
Again we want to thank to you dear Sponsor on behalf of all our children, girls and adolescents of this village and please receive from all us our warmest regards,
Sincerely,
Mr. Virgilio Peguero
SOS Children’s Village, Los Jardines del Norte Director.
Relevant Countries: Dominican Republic.