All Our Dreams hopes to build school in DR

A Honeywood woman has a dream of building a school in Dominican Republic.

Naomi Jackman, founder of All Our Dreams, is raising funds to build a school in the Santo Domingo Norte district that will benefit 3,000 school-aged children living in the area.

Jackman first visited the area last year while volunteering in an orphanage. Her team has been holding classes wherever possible, even outdoors, and are preparing to start this fall in a rented space. Ultimately, Jackman would like to establish a proper school.

She said statistics show that 80 per cent of the children living in the rural areas of the Dominican Republic are illiterate. Even more distressing, the figures reflect that only 38 per cent of school-aged children are enrolled in primary school.

In Santo Domingo Norte, only four in 10 children aged 5-18 are enrolled in school and only 27 per cent of boys and 23 per cent of girls complete their education.

“I became inspired to start a school after meeting a single mother of 5 children that wanted to put her children in school, but didn’t have the resources to. I was 23 at the time and I helped her in her quest to put all of her children in school. It was an incredible, life changing experience. Since then, I’ve had this pressing desire to help the lesser fortunate children of the Dominican Republic to overcome their economic status by helping them to acquire a solid education,” said Jackman.

All Our Dreams has set a $10,000 fundraising target, enough to fund 32 students for the year.

Jackman said she recently received an offer of land from a Canadian working in the Dominican Republic so if the organization is able to meet its target, the money collected will be used to build a school and not just student fees.

Anyone who donates $50 or more will have their names engraved on the school building.

Visit www.allourdreams.org.