Okey: building a School 101 for Roger

Objective: To build a 2 room school house in a depressed area.

Needs:
1) Land..

a. Donation

b. Purchase

c. Government requisition

2) Governmental Approval

a. The local, districts, and national educational authorities will have to approve this project.

b. Possible solutions to this problem might be Peace Corps-they have doen this before, or going straight to the Vice-Presidenta.

3) Construction Phase I

a> Approval of the plans by Public Works and the Ministry of Education.

b> Get contractor or person in charge. This personwill have to be approved by PublicWorks

4) Construction Phase II

a>Get stuff-Picks shovels or a backhoe for foundation. Re-bar, cement, wire and iron workers, wood for making table for bending re-bar. (Some of this might be donated)

b>Get man power lined up for construction:

i. Volunteers?

ii. Haitians?

iii. Local workers/missionaries?

c> Get supplies to site

d> Contract for watchman

And man, that is just the beginning.

I am sure you can get a lot of help from us, but you are in for an experience. This isn't Haiti and you will find it much much different. I think my best suggestion is to get the approvals over with even before you get your first nail or re-bar.
there is rental equipment available and some stuff we can get donated, I have no doubts.
Number one thing to do is get the community behind your project. If they don't feel the need for a school, there is no sense in building one. A bunch of meetings with the "leaders" of the community over coffee will serve this purpose. Once that is accomplished, then you can go to Santo Domingo and get the WORD...
And, at the very first shadow of a hand sticking out, palm up? You tell them in no uncertain terms "NO, go ---- yourself!"
It's not nice, but it is the only way...

and you can always figure that you will have a bunch of friends here to help out every now and then...

HB

Phase III
Hillbilly is to have lots of the US greenbacks, someone is sure to have their hand out, somewhere along the line from approval to construction.

Real dollars not like to pic I sent you.

Great advice from Hillbilly. I am curious to know how you got involved with this particular community and the desire to build a school further up the mountain? Have you (or are you going to) raised cash or materials or both? What amount are you looking to spend? I would estimate that a two or three room school house (block walls with poured roof) would cost US$20,000-25,000 for materials and a couple trained carpenters to manage the volunteer work and do the finishing work. Maybe someone can give you a better estimate. Using a zinc roof and not doing much with the doors and windows will bring the cost down. Now putting in desks, blackboards, lights, water, and other things the school needs may run you another $5,000-$20,000 depending on how nice you make the place.

The first step is to do what Hillbilly recommends, have some coffe in the campo. Every community has a group of leaders who basically represent the interests of the campo and will have to get on board. Volunteer labor, donating or purchasing the land, providing security and maintaining the property must fall into the hands of the people who the school is for. As a development worker, it is important for the community to include their part in the project. Normally something like this can take years to actually be built and finished. Little by little funds are raised at the Patronales, or through raffles or solicting from the wealther individuales in the community. Sometimes you will find a large land owner (lives in the city) in the area that puts a substantial sum. Someone from afuera can come along and speed the process up significantly.

If you share with us how you became involved in the community and how the need for the school came about, that will help in more advice.

Wow. This morning's coffee wasn't quite doing the trick, but your post certainly woke me up. It may be that my ambitions exceeded my ability. I had of course expected red tape, lots of project submission meetings, etc. but may not have been as prepared as I thought I was. I somehow had the idea (naive as it was) that I would contact someone in the Ministry of Education and together with the local community leaders replace an existing hut of a building with something new and they of course would welcome me with open arms (OK, I tend to be an idealist). If Tom's figures are correct and I assume they are pretty close, this is probably more than we would be able to tackle at this time. One thing I definitly do not want to do is do a half-***ed job. These people probably need some goody-two shoes gringo getting their hopes up and then fizzling out at the end like they need more sand.

We got the idea while on an outback trip and having a building that was little more than a few boards nailed together pointed out to us. We thought (with typical American smugness) that we would come back and solve all their problems by giving them what we thought they needed. I had no idea what all would be involved and sought out insight from those of you on this board who may know more. I'm glad I did. I would rather fail here on a discussion board than down there in real life.

Given the amount of money we have available, perhaps the better thing to do would be to devote our energies to assisting an existing school such as the one at Maimon. Meeting with the teachers/community leaders and determining their needs seems much more feasable.

Thank you for the information, it was precisely what I needed, a reality check. Perhaps the school building will need to be put on hold and we will start out with a less ambitious project. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again

of my experiences.

We were told that we had money for supplies-wood, roofing materials and tools. Also for re-bar and cement. BUT we would have to (1) find the site; (2) get the land; (3) get the volunteer labor; and (4) MAKE our own blocks--outof dirt!!

We were young and eager. We would even get a jeep to use during construction!! A major plus!

We visited four sites, each one needing a school to replace the existing one. We finally decided on the one we liked, submitted it to the higher ups and got approval.

When we ent back to tell the people they were very calm and laid back. We were puzzled??? WTF?? Here we are giving them a school and THIS is how the news is received.??

After some rum and coke with the son of a local big shot, we learned why. Twice before, people with "good intentions" had come and offered a school. They had held raffles, verbenas and what not to raise money. Now both of these supposed "do-=gooders" were in New York!!

AH! we said: We already have the money!! We don't need anything but the land and the people to work. Oh yes, we need some dirt, too, to make the blocks.. That really brought stares of disbelief.

It took about 14 months of work, the school was built and dedicated to JFK, it still stands and the building itself has served at least two groups of arquitects as good materiel for their thesis!! AND the blocks that were left over are still there being used as a walk way for the houses nearby...

This can be done and you have probably found a good spot.

Meet with thelocals and see what they think, just as Tom and I have sugested. Then we'll take the next step...

HB

Great story HB. I have found that you can accomplish a great deal in the DR, but it must be on their terms and patience is a must.