HHS FOUNDATION, INC. WON TWO AWARDS IN CONTEST VI CARD OF HOPE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BANK LEÓN.
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS FOR 6 AWARDS 5.


Banco Leon in Card VI Hope Award celebrated with a Christmas party with children who competed Christmas card painting of 2009 .-

This celebration was held at Happy Land of Jumbo, Luperon, enjoying their games, their character Coco, meals, refreshments and snacks .-

We work with children who are 7 years of age or older helping them with their school work and encouraging them to read more, improve their writing skills and acquire proficiency in math.   We also have as project a public library, VICTORIA EUGENIA BERROA DE PEGUERO, to provide our student body and the public free access to our resources. 

In this area, we have accomplished the following:

-         Homework support room, morning and afternoon

-         Public library, in progress

-         Information technology training center (approved by Indotel and waiting to be carried out).  It will be equipped with computers donated by Non-Profit Computing and ClickAid via the United Nations

-         We held summer camps

-         Distribution of donated book bags and school supplies

-         Distribution of donated hygiene kits

-         Trips to the Book Fair

-         Workshops held at Cuesta book store

-         Trips to Trampolin Museum

-         Trips to Faro A Colon

-         Trips to Old Santo Domingo (Colonial Zone) and historical sites with a tour guide

-         Conferences on ornament and decoration

-         Manual workshops on florist, painting, and jewelry design

The organizations that we have donated personal computers and school supplies are as follows:

-          Escuela Básica Salome Ureña, los coquitos de los Mameyes, Santo Domingo Este (Computadoras, Operativos Medico, Odontológico y Vacunación).

-          Centro Educativo Santa Teresa de Jesús, Fe y Alegría, Comendador Elías Piña

-          Acción Comunitaria para el Desarrollo, Ensanche La Fe, Distrito Nacional

-          Centro Infantil Margarita Nasseau, Villa Duarte, Santo Domingo Este

-          Escuela Básica de Rió Verde Abajo, La Vega

-          Escuela Laboral Madre Teresa Toda, Azua

-          Proyecto de Formación Personal y técnica ACES, Cabon, Haina, Provincia San Cristóbal

-          Fundación Mahatma Ghandi, Las Terrenas, Samaná

-          Procuraduría General de la Republica, Programa de jóvenes que han delinquido, Ensanche La Fe, Distrito Nacional

-          Escuela Básica Los Conucos de Juan Dolio (Útiles Escolares, Operativos Médicos, Vacunación, diligencias para construcción e la Escuela, entre otros)

-          Escuela Santa Rosa, Bani (Útiles Escolares, curso de pintura y exposición)

-          Escuela Básica Corazón de Jesús, Sabana Grande de Boya

-          Centro de Salud Mental Gualey, Distrito Nacional

-          Grupo social comunitario, Carretera El Limón, Colonia Rancho Español (materiales escolares).

-          Núcleo Estudiantes de Comunicación Social UASD, Facultad de Humanidades, 2do piso.

In total we received 200 computers, donated 180 computers and kept 20 for our facility .-

-          RIMCO AIR CONDITIONING

-          Non-Profit Computing and ClickAid

-          Airline Ambassador International

-          Give them a Hand Foundation

-          Georges Pataki, Ex-Governor NYC

-          Secretaria de Estado de la Mujer

-          Consejo Nacional Niñ@s y Adolescentes (CONANI)

-          Plan Social de la Presidencia

-          Secretaria de Estado de Medio Ambiente

-          Secretaria de Trabajo

-          AMET (Autoridad Metropolitana del Transporte)

-          Editora Actualidad Escolar

-          Editora Oceano

-          Editora DISESA

-          Literatura Universal

-          Asociación Quisqueyana de Intelectuales (Miguel Solano)

-          Ferretería Americana.

-          Centro Cuesta del Libro

-          Ayuntamiento Santo Domingo Este

-          Banda Sinfónica Juvenil Juan Pablo Duarte

-          Comercial Corazón, C. Por A

-          Sheyla Bus

-          Print Plus

-          Pinturas Tropical

-          Nestle

-          Artista Plástico, Rafael Batista

-          Artista Plástica, Iris Pérez

-          Colgate Palmolive

-          Literatura Universal

Jobs performed by children are considered of high risk since these are a threat to their rights and compromise their physical, emotional and intellectual integrity.   Committed to help our children, we have been sowing in the community the fact that to our children the main objective should be school in lieu of a job or hanging out.  Because of this commitment, we have to continue to encourage them in meeting this goal by offering a dignified space, clean and safe where they can develop their potential. 

Taking into account that the majority of our student body attends public schools in which the quality of education has made some progress, but continues to have deficiencies, we have implemented a daily workshop called Homework Support Room.  The kids, based on their daily school schedule, are able to attend a morning or afternoon session.  We help them with their assignments and then continue to reinforce their writing skills and reading comprehension, in addition to math skills.  We also take the time to work on their self-esteem, teach them organizational skills, focus on solidarity and, of course, play games.  In this manner, we try to keep them motivated and help reduce the number of school dropouts, in addition to keeping them from becoming child laborers and away from bad habits. 

The Homework Support Room is open throughout the school year, from August to June the following year.  Then in July, we have the summer camp where we hold recreational activities, vocational workshops, such as painting and educational workshops, such as proper hygiene.

The plan for The Information Technology Center is to help the students with their school assignments and to hold 3-month training sessions for groups of 20 kids from Monday through Friday and on Saturdays hold training sessions for the parents who are interested in learning a new skill.  The kids will benefit directly from this project by learning new skills while the community, schools and their families will benefit indirectly. 

We currently have two teachers helping us.  With this project, we can increase the number to four teachers for the homework support room and bring in two more for the IT center.

We also need to take into account that in the community where we are headquartered there is not a pubic or private library, thus, our plan to eventually establish one within our building.

Our strategy is to get everyone within our community involved with our organization - the neighborhood schools, community boards, teachers, parents and neighborhood associations and/or clubs.  With their involvement, we expect the following results:

Within every group session of 30 kids, get all kids 7 years old and older to undertake the role of dedicated student with a proactive attitude and initiative; own their own destiny by avoiding school absences and/or dropping out of school. 

We currently have 11 kids attending the morning session and 28 in the afternoon.  We plan to continue to encourage them and follow up on their school progress and their “at-home” situation to prevent any breach of discontent to enter into their lives and lead them into thinking of dropping out of school.  We plan to get the head of household to responsibly follow up on their kids school work and get involved with our facilitators so that our work is truly integrated.

During the school year, we plan to measure their progress in school so that we can reinforce it and help them maintain or acquire better grades.  We are also planning to train our facilitators to follow the methodology, policies and procedures established by National Educational Plan being carried out by our country Secretary of Education. 

We estimate that our project will increase as every family interacts with other families, notice their kids’ positive change in moral values and in conduct, and spread the word throughout the community.  Therefore, we expect during the next school year that we will have the capacity to help 40 kids during each group session (morning and afternoon).  We will divide them into 4 groups of 20 based on their age and grade.