The last two weeks of January I had the incredible opportunity to travel with The Justification of Youth and Kids Alive International (KAI) to Caraballo, DR and love on the kids at the KAI care center. These sweet kiddos are filled to their ears with joy, and oh how it is contagious! That would seem normal, but if you only knew what their circumstances were outside of school, then it would seem mind boggling. 

Most public schools in the DR last for 1/2 a day. Therefore, the kids in Caraballo have the opportunity to come to the care center (we simply call it school vs public school) during the other half of the day. At the KAI school, the children are fed a nutritious lunch, which oftentimes may be the only full meal they eat throughout the day. When they go home, they face neglect or abuse from their families as they are living in extreme poverty. Most of the kids that attend the KAI school are from the bottom of the totem pole; they are the poorest of the poor, and therefore society does not have very high expectations for their futures. However, at the KAI school, the children are given a great education, morals are instilled in them and they are taught about the sweet love of Jesus through devotions, worship and bible class. 

If students are able to graduate from the KAI program in 8th grade and pass the national exams to enter high school, they have gone from the underdogs of society to the top of the class, ahead of all of their peers that only attended public school. Currently, there are even 50 students that are being sponsored for college through KAI, several of which are studying to become teachers at their local KAI school. What a perfect way to give back to the school and program that gave them such a bright future

One of the coolest opportunities of the trip was our visit to some of our friends’ homes. Their homes were very different from each other, and that was largely due to the family and financial situations at home. One of the biggest differences in wealth was that one home was able to offer us chairs while the other did not have any chairs in their kitchen. 

On our walk up the hill, we noticed that there were tons of baby chicks everywhere. It turns out that someone in the community was selling these baby chicks at a price of 2 for 5 pesos. Have any guesses on how that translates to American dollars? I could have bought 17 chicks for $1!! That’s crazy!! Of course, our sweet little friends all had them to play with so that’s what we did. There’s so much to share about this community, but sometimes it’s easier to share those stories through pictures. Here are some of my favorites from our visits to the community!