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Ark Jarabacoa Children's Home

Jarabacoa | Dominican Republic

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JARABACOA TODAY'S WEATHER

Highlights

Beautiful and Efficient Child Sponsorship

In a former life as a management consultant, we inevitably presented to business clients how to best use limited resources …

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Transforming children’s lives via family-style residential homes

Click on an image below to enlarge and read captions

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Reuniting and strengthening kids and families

While Kids Alive ministry focuses on children, we are firmly committed to – and love to – reunify children with …

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“Breaking” Free!

“Spring Break” took on extra meaning for all three Kids Alive residential programs this year. For some children and youth …

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Did You Know?

Dominican Republic is the 2nd largest Caribbean nation, and the 3rd largest by population

Spanish is the national language, with Haitian Creole being the largest minority language

Dominican Republic culture contains a vibrant mix of European, African, and indigenous influences

Dominican Republic is the most visited tourist destination in the Caribbean

Dominican Republic shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti, taking in many Haitian immigrants following the 2010 earthquake


God is working
in Jarabacoa!

Please pray for...

A good adjustment and transition of three new youth who recently arrived from Dominican child protective services.

Spiritual growth, unity, and relaxation as the staff and students enjoy a break from a challenging academic year.

Rejuvenating and safe two-week vacations for each set of house parents.

Funds for a four-day family camp in August for all three residential programs. 

Prayer requests updated 06/2021

About Ark Jarabacoa Children's Home

boys and girls live at the Ark
families helped by Families Together program
youth participate in our sports program*
K
population of Jarabacoa

The Ark in Jarabacoa is Kids Alive’s oldest and largest residential care facility. The 45 children who have been rescued from difficult and painful circumstances live in family-style homes, cared for holistically by our dedicated staff. Not only are their immediate physical needs met, but they also receive a quality education, emotional support, and spiritual training. The Ark also supports 10 young adult graduates who live in transition homes or with families in the local community.

We received a perfect score on our last evaluation from the Dominican government and we continue to benefit from a good relationship with local child protective services. Our soccer field recently received a much-needed update and expansion, much to the delight of students. And we welcomed a professional teacher to direct our tutoring and a psychologist who will help develop individual improvement plans for each child.

For 2020, we have big goals! There is a lot of maintenance that needs to be done on our facilities, and much of our furniture needs to be refurbished. Our staff carry heavy workloads, both physically and emotionally, so we are working to better schedule times of refreshing for them. And we need to continue improvements of our independence training initiatives for older youth who are preparing to graduate from our residential program.

In the words of our Country Director, “The Ark is a paradise for kids who have come from hard places. In some sense it’s a restorative garden for the many children and youth who pass through. We love the physical beauty of the site but more importantly the spiritual healing and growth that blossoms over time.”

*Sports program incorporates kids from Ark Jarabacoa, ANIJA, and Palo Blanco

  • The children we serve often come from serious trauma and need safety, acceptance, love, and help to begin the healing process
  • Our staff recently began intensive training to more effectively help kids who have experienced trauma
  • This is the oldest of our residential homes
  • Most of the children here were rescued from dangerous, unstable circumstances

Life at Ark Jarabacoa

Our campus houses abused, orphaned, and abandoned children in family-style homes with loving, attentive house parents. In most cases, the kids have been through difficult and painful circumstances before coming to us, and we count it a privilege to give them a safe place to live and recover from their traumatic pasts.

Kids Alive in Dominican Republic

Kids Alive staff members
Kids Alive staff in DR are nationals
+
children between ages of 3 and 22 in Kids Alive care

Dominican Republic Country Director's Update

Planting a Living Hope in Dominican Republic!

Once again, we greet you from the ministries of Kids Alive in Dominican Republic, where your partnership and your gifts are helping to plant hope in the lives of at-risk children and young people. We rejoice that this is not simply a hope for escaping poverty or for a better career – you are planting the living hope (1 Pet. 1:3) in their lives which means an eternity with the One who loves them!

Within Kids Alive DR, we have the privilege of working with over 2,000 kids between the ages of 3 and 22. While this seems like a large window of opportunity to cultivate these seeds, the culture here often works against us, making the labor difficult. And nearly all the children we serve come from, and still live inside, backgrounds of abuse, exploitation, or extreme poverty. These “hard places” make the sowing of hope a real challenge.

However, one of our great joys is seeing the visible, healthy growth in these young lives and watching them blossom into beautiful new creations before our eyes. They are developing strong roots, watered by your compassion and love, and are going on to have a positive impact on their families and communities.

All our ministries are benefiting from unprecedented favor with government officials. Our schools are receiving awards for excellence; our homes are receiving commendations for our quality care, and we’re increasingly being asked to take additional children that Dominican officials have identified as abused or neglected. We see this as a tremendous privilege – and a great responsibility. read more »

Vic-Trautwen-Ramon-Prenza
Vic-signature

Vic Trautwein
Co-Country Director
Dominican Republic

Ramon-signature

Ramon Prenza
Co-Country Director
Dominican Republic

Learn About DR
  • Population of 10 million, with many living in extreme poverty
  • Government is a representative democracy with elections every four years
  • Poor quality education system with high dropout rates, nearly 90% in some areas
  • There is a serious problem of child labor in agricultural industries
  • Shares island of Hispaniola with Haiti, taking many Haitian immigrants following 2010 earthquake

Rejoice with us, and praise God for...

  • 12 young people graduated to independence and/or restored to their biological families
  • Graduations of 160 kids from 1st grade, 120 from 6th grade, 70 from high school, and 7 from university
  • Significant expansion of our youth clubs and sports discipleship programs
  • Unprecedented favor with local governments, including awards for excellence and approval to expand to additional grade levels
  • Welcoming of children who have been referred to us by Dominican officials after removal from their homes because of severe neglect or abuse