By Michelle Astill
Most people go to the Dominican Republic for a vacation in the sun. But for a group of Centretown high school students, the island offers an opportunity to help those in need.
Immaculata High School is sending a team of 14 senior students to the sugar mill village of Consuelo from March 8 to 15. They will live there in poverty with host families and work with the school’s founders, the Grey Sisters of the Immaculate Conception.
Dedicated to social justice issues, the Grey Sisters have been doing mission work in the Dominican Republic for 50 years.
Graduating student and participant Tanya Hasey says from the moment she heard about the opportunity, she thought it “was really interesting and wanted to go.”
“I’ve always enjoyed volunteering,” she adds.
Hasey says she understands why others wouldn’t find the trip desirable. But she says she is looking forward to experiencing another way of life.
According to Carol Arnason, one of two teachers accompanying the students to the Dominican Republic, this is the main purpose of the venture.
“It’s mainly educational awareness about Third World poverty,” she says.
“I hope (the students) will learn to appreciate all the luxuries we have in Canadian society and realize there are a lot of people living all over the world that can still be happy and hope for a better life and still not have the material things we have.”
She adds this is the third time Immaculata High School is sending students to the developing world and that those who have gone say it has changed their lives.
For this reason, Arnason says, sessions are being held with the students to prepare them for the “culture shock” they will experience.
This includes exposure to things such as language barriers, poor labour conditions amd having no television.
Despite this, Hasey predicts she will never be fully prepared for what she will encounter during her March break holiday.
“We won’t change (the local residents) as much as they’ll change us.”
The 14 students were selected by the school to take part in the experience because of their active involvement in the local community. Over the last year, they’ve organized various fundraising activities like bake sales and car washes to raise money for the trip. In total, they have collected $11,000 to help build a school in the village of Consuelo.
Immaculata is not the only school to initiate such a program.
Terry Shaw, a spokesperson for the Ottawa-Carleton Catholic School Board, says it’s been a board-wide tradition to organize student trips to other parts of the world.
“It’s a great learning tool,” he says.