Our work in San Juan
AMIGOS Project Staff and Volunteers work with local youth and community members to carry out the following activities:
I. Community Service
Community-Based Initiative Process (CBIP): Volunteers collaborate with their host community in the implementation of a community-specific project. Projects in 2012 included: developing a sports equipment rental bank, improving a recreational sports area, and forming an after school tutoring system.
Extracurricular Activities: Together with local youth, Volunteers will plan and lead games and activities based on the theme of children's rights for ages anywhwere from 5-12. In 2012, Volunteers focused on sports, art, and cultural activities, each with a focus on children's rights.
II. Intercultural Exchange
Living with a host family: Volunteers will have the opportunity to be immersed in Dominican culture by living with a host family. AMIGOS prefers that each Volunteer is assigned to their own host family, however, occasionally two Volunteers are placed with the same host family. Volunteers are expected to act as part of the family, helping out with chores and taking part in day to day activities. Volunteers will learn about the local culture, while also providing host families with insight into their own habits, ways of being in the world, and lives back home.
Eating local food: Although eating arrangements vary from one community to another, a common strategy is for Volunteers to have a rotating meal plan, in which they eat with different families in the community.
III. Youth Engagement
Domestic Volunteers: This project will have Dominican youth serving as AMIGOS volunteers alongside US-based Volunteers. They are trained before US-based Volunteers arrive and will be participating in a community outside their home province.
Local Volunteers: Prior to Volunteer arrival, local youth will be trained by AMIGOS project staff on the basic program structure and planning and facilitation skills and will participate in AMIGOS programs in their own communities.
Forming youth groups: Volunteers are encouraged to be creative and form youth groups in their communities (i.e. afterschool girls group, reading club, ect.) when possible. This will provide local youth with a structure within which to continue activities started throughout the summer and ensure sustainability of summer initiatives.
About our Partners
AMIGOS partners with the Dominican branch of Plan International, a development organization with global reach. Plan International works in 45 developing countries on health, education, livelihood, housing, water and sanitation projects and cross-cultural learning. Plan's vision is of "a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people's rights and dignity". It works with a participatory approach. Children, their families and their communities are involved in the design, implementation and evaluation of all of Plan's programs. Child sponsorship is the foundation of the organization; there are about one million sponsors in 15 donor countries helping over one million children all over the world, together with their families and communities.
Plan has been working in the Dominican Republic since 1987, helping poor children to access their rights to education, health, protection and sustainable livelihoods. Our work focuses on the South West of the country, helping children and their families in 148 communities to empower themselves to lead their own development.
FURTHER ACTIONS
Involving youth from across the Americas
Read about our Partner Agencies
