I was a US Peace Corps volunteer on Dominica island from 2013-2015–I worked at a resource scarce primary school where I taught art full time to 207 children grades K-6th. In the after school arts program I also taught beginning knitting and a variety of other crafts.
The school–St. Luke’s Primary in the village of Pt. Michel (pop approx 1,600) where I lived was hit hard by hurricane Maria recently. Most of the classrooms lost their roofs, so everything in the classroom got wet from the downpour of rain, the school library also got ruined–but already the villagers and parents are working on the school. This, despite 16 people in the village killed, including one 10 year old boy.
I started a Go Fund Me page for my school, and Kay and Ann suggested I start a thread here about my fund raising efforts. So far–I have raised $3,000 US for the school, but they will need much more to get back up and running. The government there is discussing maybe setting up big tents for the children to attend school in while the buildings are repaired. Please donate what you can–even $5 in US funds goes a long way, as $5.00 US = $13.50 in Eastern Caribbean funds. Thanks for your help! I have talked to Sister Annita–the school principal–and will be wiring the money directly to her. I trust her completely to use the money wisely to benefit the school and children. She told me they still had no wifi but the phones worked! And electricity was intermittent, and I was very happy to learn that all of the teachers were ok–some of them lost their homes, but they were ok. Here is the link to donate: https://www.gofundme.com/stlukesDominica