ORPHANAGE ASSISTANCE

Pittsburg State University students helped last March at an orphanage in the Dominican Republic, and are planning on going again in a few months.

“A year ago last fall I got an e-mail from Orphanage Outreach, which has been working there for several years,” said Patty Magee, PSU social sciences instructor. “They get a lot of education and medical students who come down to help, and they were looking for social work students who might be interested.”

Brad Cameron, who heads the PSU social work program, told Magee that he would support her if she decided to become involved with the program.

“I did some checking to see if it was legitimate,” Magee said. “It was. Then I presented it to our social work organization and asked if any students were interested. They were.”

She ended up taking 13 students to the Dominican Republic. It was the first international trip Magee had planned, there were delays because of weather, but the group arrived safely.

“We went to Jaibon, a small rural community, and there we were with about 200 other U.S. and Canadian students,” Magee said. “We slept in tents and the meals were primarily beans and rice.”

The Centro para la Ninez includes an on-site school that conducts class for nearly 500 children in the community. Magee and the PSU students conducted workshops for the students in crafts, the English language and reading.”

“They’ve found that if you can introduce English to the kids in school there are a lot more job opportunities for them,” Magee said. “Reading was usually the favorite group. Some of those children had never seen a book before.”

She explained that the orphanage is not exactly the same as such facilities in the United States.

“Here, we assume that if a child is in an orphanage, his or her parents are dead,” Magee said. “In the Dominican Republic, many of the children in the orphanages do have living parents, but they can’t afford to keep them.”

One of the projects the PSU group worked on was a stone wall at the orphanage.

“They wanted a wall for security,” Magee said. “My son, Nicholas, who went with me, had just completed a masonry program, so we started a wall.”

Magee and Mary Zeigler went to the Dominican Republic this summer and spent two months working with Orphanage Outreach.

“Now we’re in the process of getting the next group, and we’ll have 13 going in March 2011,” Magee said. “Things I learned this summer we will be researching.”

There will be an emphasis this time on sexually transmitted diseases, which are a problem in the Dominican Republic.

“Girls are very provocative at a very early age because they’re taught they need to catch a man for security,” Magee said. “They also have an incest problem. It’s a very small thing we’re going, but it’s better than nothing.”

One of those going in March will be Jessica Williams, Olathe, who carries a double major in Spanish and social work.

“I wanted to experience something new,” she said. “In Spanish I could have taken a trip to Spain, but on this trip I can work on both my Spanish skills and social work.”

“The kids will love you because you can speak Spanish,” said Danielle Renyer, Ottawa, a social work major who went last March.

Renyer said that she was impressed by how close families are in the Dominican Republic.

“I also liked how they used things from the environment, like making branches from the trees into fences,” Renyer said. “But it was a culture shock. They don’t have trash bags, whenever they’re done with whatever, they just throw it down on the ground.”

“Litter is not a concern, but they want they own personal space to be clean,” Magee said. “It’s not unusual to see a woman sweep the trash from her yard into somebody else’s yard.”

Nevertheless, she added that the culture in the Dominican Republic is generally very upbeat.

“To us, it would seem to be extreme poverty,” Magee said, “but they don’t seem to be aware of it.”

She said that the trip is not limited to social work students, but is open to any PSU student who wants to go.

“We’re also fundraising and accepting donations,” Magee said. “They would like things like towels, sheets, shampoo and cleaning supplies. They also want children’s books, either in English or Spanish. We’ll each take two suitcases, one with our things and the other filled with donations.”

“All of the towels I took were new, and I just left them,” Renyer said.

Having a limited amount of water for showering was challenge for her, and Renyer was necessarily that fond of rice and beans, but she’s still glad she went.

“I think it was an opportunity to make a difference,” she said. “To put a smile on one of the kids’ faces was worth it to me. When I’m out in the world as a social worker, I’ll have an idea and be able to help the kids.”

Anyone wishing additional information about the trip or wanting to make a donation may contact Patty Magee at 620-235-4339.