Description:
Visions offers teenagers opportunities for ambitious service work and cross-cultural immersion in the United States and abroad. We work with and for intercultural communities that lack financial and other development resources. Through service, authentic experience, and active exploration, we encourage new perspectives and dynamic learning.
Crushing poverty is a fact of life in the Dominican Republic where unemployment is staggering and the average salary is about 60 dollars a month. So precarious is the economy that the nation rations electricity in its most impoverished neighborhoods by shutting down power for up to 10 hours each day.
Santo Domingo, the capital and oldest city in the New World, is the country's most prosperous and populated and arguably neediest region. Visions has two home bases in the Dominican Republic. Our oldest site, where we have lived and worked since 1992 is Sabana Perdida, a section of Santo Domingo 40 minutes from its epicenter. Our other site is Santa Fe, a small coastal town on the outskirts of San Pedro de Marcoris just over one hour from the capital. For nearly a century until the late 1990s, Santa Fe was a sugar mill town surrounded by state-operated sugar plantations, dotted with bateyes (where the mostly Haitian sugar cutters live). When the mill shut down, the community began a descent into hard economic times.
Despite overwhelming, incessant need, the joy of this country is in its resilient, vibrant populace. You will encounter Dominicans from all walks of life: students, teachers, health and development workers, farmers and other laborers, government officials. You will meet new friends in Santa Fe or ones of long-standing in Sabana Perdida such as Santiago, our gua gua (bus) driver; Victorina, our cook; the Ramos family and other members of the local Lions Club with whom we collaborate annually, and many jovenes who have literally grown up around Visions groups in the summer.
Highlights:
Your service work will be masonry construction of a school or home, organizing and supervising Campamento activities for young children. Our home base will be in Sabana Perdida, outside the capital of Santo Domingo. Past participants have built a medical clinic; several public schools; built, re-built and renovated housing; created a public park with benches and play structures. Campamento de Juveniles is a day camp initiated by past participants that we operate seasonally. We undertake similar projects in San Luis, a batey community.
On our free evenings and in the afternoons, we enjoy all the country has to offer: visits to colorful, aromatic markets, strolls along narrow stone streets of Santo Domingo's historic colonial section, dancing to merengue at Cuacara Taina Discoteque. The white sand beaches and clear blue waters are perfect for snorkeling and swimming. We play baseball, bowl, visit museums and cultural centers. An overnight trip into the interior breaks up our stay, as do hikes into the Dominican Alps and to a spectacular fresh water pool fed by waterfalls. You will also enjoy a two-day home stay hosted by a Dominican family from our local community.
A summer in the Dominican Republic will be demanding, eye-opening, and immensely rewarding.
Participants in this program must have a minimum of two years of high school Spanish or the equivalent proficiency.
Qualifications / Skills Needed:
Two years of high school Spanish or equivalent
Travel Types:
Native Culture Studies
and Volunteering
Type of Programs:
Adventure Travel,
Community Service / Volunteerism,
Cultural Exploration
and Language Immersion
Languages:
English
and Spanish
Cost in US$: 5,050
Cost Includes:
Excursions,
Food,
Housing
and Travel while in host country
Everything except airfare to and from program location and spending money (generally 50-60 dollars per week).
Experience Required: no
Typical Volunteer Projects:
community development
and community organizing
Age Range: 14-18
This Program is open to
Worldwide
Participants.
.
Typical Living Arrangement:
Group living
Participants Travel to Dominican Republic
in Groups
Typically Participants Work
in Groups of 24
Scholarships Are Available.
Application Process Involves:
- Physical Exam/Health Records
- Written Application
Typically The Application Process Time Is 1 week or less
Post Services Include:
Alumni Network
Visions Service Adventures's Mission Statement: Through service work and dynamic experience, Visions offers new perspectives and deep learning while working for and with under-resourced communities. Through construction-based and other service and on-site living, Visions introduces teens to cultures very different from their own. Participants are challenged to grow thoughtfully and intentionally within a community of peers and adult leaders. The service work accomplished is a gift to local hosts who welcome Visions participants into their homes and lives. Visions assists organizations that serve under-resourced communities. We provide labor and raw materials for projects designated by communities. Depending on the duration and size of a program, Visions provides USD 3,000 to USD 7,000 for each location's projects, which we fund in full or by adding funds to local funding sources for projects.
Year Founded: 1989