Field Note Category: San Juan, Dominican Republic

We wanted to let you all know that volunteers on Session A of the Barahona Project will be calling home this week on a rolling basis as their supervisors visit them in community. Some of you may have already heard from your volunteer! The final opportunity for your student to call home will be on … Read More

For this week’s blog we want to feature each of our Project Supervisors’ routes so that you get a glimpse of how the volunteers have been doing on their very first week in community. Gabriel’s Route / La Ruta de Gabriel Both Tres Charcos and Cachón’s volunteers are doing an amazing job with their local … Read More

Wow! This past week was jam packed with excitement and hard work. The Project Staff Team was busy with trainings for national volunteers, host families, local youth, and U.S. volunteers. The National Volunteers—Dominican youth from other communities where Plan International works—are extremely excited to start their summer of intercultural exchange and service with AMIGOS. These … Read More

For the last two weeks AMIGOS Directors and partner agency Plan International (PLAN) have been working hard to set up this year’s program in Barahona: a beautiful seaside city in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. In preparation, we met with youth groups, visited some of the communities, went to a folklore dance performance, and … Read More

¡Hola a todos! My name is Sasha Baumann and I will be your Project Director this summer in San Juan, Dominican Republic. With a background in global public health and sport for development in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa, I am overjoyed to be returning to work with AMIGOS: the place where it all started … Read More

As a member of senior staff, I rarely have the opportunity to work in the field. My job involves managing our budget, collaborating with local providers, and risk assessment. This doesn’t always give me the opportunity to get to know the communities we work in. This week, as a change of pace, I accompanied Maren … Read More

After surviving their first week in community (and thriving, at that!), Session B volunteers are off to a great start this summer! They are all are busy leading campamentos (day camps) with the local kids, showing off their volleyball skills, working with the local volleyball team, and leading gender talks with the jovenes (youth) in their … Read More

After a very successful first session, the Dominican Republic project leadership team (the D.R.eam Team) was given a week to evaluate the state of the current communities, prepare individual communities for Session B, and even take a little bit of a breather! Within this gap-week of regrouping, objectives and goals were left up to each … Read More

After three weeks living with Dominican families, the participants of Session A were reunited in a convent in San Juan de la Maguana.  Leaving community had been bittersweet. As participants lugged their baggage in and out of vans, greeted old friends, and swapped stories about their summers, they experienced both excitement to see their families … Read More

For ten of the communities on our project, their last day was spent competing in San Juan in the second volleyball tournament. The hard work of our participants and their communities was obvious throughout the day. Hours of practice made the games competitive and exciting to watch. More importantly, hours of time spent together made … Read More