More than ever in this past year, the Casa Monte Plata residential home was a safe refuge for children and youth in 2020. It not only served the usual place for rescue and transformation but also shielded our children and youth from the pandemic.
In mid-March, we started a 12-week campus lock-in insulating over 30 children and their caregivers from the pandemic. It was a hard but eventually rewarding decision to see our children and their house parents safe and well-guarded from the pandemic.
In order to protect vulnerable workers as well as campus residents, house assistants and maintenance workers were asked to shelter at their home, which provided an opportunity for our older youth to step into these roles, which they did with joy.
In this shielded environment, life within the four walls went on as normal. Everyone was free to move around within the campus unencumbered, without masks, and activities such as basketball and playground time continued without any significant changes.
The addition of a splashing pool and other special events within the campus premises, as well as weeks at the rustic camp just outside of town, made the confinement bearable and many times even memorable!
By October we began “homeschooling” on the premises with the older youth equipped with laptops and tablets provided by generous donors. Along with enhanced internet and computer capabilities and in-house education routines, we were also able to add an additional educational coordinator and teachers from Eva Russell School to help with education.
At Christmas, instead of the normal practice of letting kids visit with their biological families, we remained quarantined. This protected the youth and staff and also allowed for special Christmas celebrations including the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, dances and worship songs, and the Three Kings Day celebration where children (and house parents) received special gifts.
Looking forward to 2021, we plan to continue with a creative and successful educational year at the Casa Monte Plata “home-school” while adapting to the needs created by the evolving pandemic.
Our hope is that by spring and summer our youth can return to off-campus activities such as sports, and then return to normal school by fall. Additionally, we are blessed to have a new missionary, Anne Peyton Baker, a graduate student in psychology from Vanderbilt University who is helping with emotional health and spiritual formation.
Click on photo for caption.
Three Kings Day, officially celebrated on January 4th this year, is the traditional day of gift-giving in the Dominican Republic. Usually, we have a team from the US bearing gifts, who then wrap them here. Thank you to the many who pitched in to ensure these kids got their special presents in this unusual year.
