More than ever in this past year, the Ark Jarabacoa residential home was a safe refuge for children and youth in 2020. It not only served as 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 40 of our 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. Since the campus was shielded from the pandemic, life within the four walls went on close to normal. Everyone was free to move around within the campus, without masks, and activities such as basketball and playground time continued without any changes.
The addition of a splashing pool, Ark family cookouts, and other special events within the campus premises made the confinement bearable and often quite memorable! By September we began “homeschooling” on the premises with dedicated teachers from our ANIJA School and older youth equipped with laptops and tablets provided by generous donors.
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, dance and worship songs, and the Three Kings Day celebration where children (and house parents) received special gifts.
Along with a new computer lab, we were able to renovate all five house kitchens during the second half of the year and also open a temporary in-house dental clinic. The kitchen renovations were much needed as the wooden doors and cabinets along with the countertops were well worn after 15-20 years of hard use. The mom’s (and perhaps the children too) are thrilled!
Looking forward to 2021, we plan to continue with a creative and successful educational year in the Ark “home-school” while continuing to adapt working around the pandemic and related risks.
Our hope is that by spring and summer our youth can return to off-campus activities such as soccer games, and to a normal schooling routine by next fall. Additionally, we have recently transitioned several older youth to independent housing, and, amazingly, five Ark graduates are starting university this winter.
For many years, the Ark has been a place to rescue, redeem, and restore and this mission is as true today as ever. Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
Click on photo for caption.
Cindy, residential program graduate and medical student (on KA-DR scholarship), helps with homework at the Ark. With distance learning required by the government, our students go to school “at home” at the Ark. We have borrowed some staff from ANIJA and added a computer lab with internet to enhance our teaching capabilities.
