This project was conceived in September 2008 as an assignment to fulfill a service learning requirement for a Girls' Studies class at the University of Central Florida. However, this project is so much more. Here is an explanation right from the Orlando Diocese:

Since 2002 the Mission Office of the Diocese of Orlando has operated five elementary Catholic schools in the mountains of the Domincan Republic. In this formative setting the students develop an appetite for learning, and hunger for the opportunity continue their education beyond the elementary school level.

The public high school serving our mountain communites function with little to now resources and offer classes only 2-3 days a week. The boysi n the village have the opportunity to continue their education by participating in a Franciscan boys' residence proect, in Azua, a town 6 hours a way from our village. Thiere is no comparable program for girls.

Our dream is to be able to provide our teenage girls with a similar oppotunity. Our vision is to build a girls' residence in Azua, where 30 young women will live in community and attending the existing local Catholic high school. Without such a program the girls' futures are very restricted, likely leading to pregnancy at 15, with little or no hope for spiritual, personal and intellectual development.

A pilot program for five, specially selected young women will begin in September, 2008. They will temporarily reside and attend a public school in the bigger town of Guayabal, unitl the girls' residence can be constructed. These five girls represent the "crest of the wave." We believe given the opportunity to explore their God given talents fully, they will discover their spcial gifts and make a difference not only in their own lives but in those of their community.

We invite you to read the girls' biographies. They wrote the biographies in English so they could personally share their stories with you. To achieve the dream we need your financial support to purcahse land, construct a residence, and make this a sustainable reality.