Earlier this month, grade 11 students from Macdonald High School in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue asked their community to help them amass school supplies for their humanitarian trip to the Dominican Republic.
“We’ve got a tremendous response,” said Christopher Chang, the leadership teacher who organized the trip.
On June 25, the group of 17 students, accompanied by Chang and two other adults, flew to a small community approximately 50 kilometres northeast of La Romana, Dominican Republic.
In total, they were able to carry down 114 school bags — filled with supplies — and four suitcases full of more school supplies.
Each of the roughly 100 students from the only school in the village received a bag and supplies when the Macdonald high group visited the school on Friday.
“I estimate that we’ve got enough school supplies to last a year,” Chang told Global News via text message.
The school is located in a batey, which is a small Dominican community populated mostly by Haitian migrants where the primary source of income is cutting sugar cane.
The remaining 44 school bags have been donated to a neighbouring batey, Chang said.
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“They usually either carry or use a wheelbarrow to move their elderly, sick, and disabled.”
One of the wheelchairs was brought specifically for the son of a local worker for whom the students will be building a house.
Chang met the worker while on a humanitarian trip with last year’s grade 11 students. When he realized that the man lived in a ramshackle house with his young son who cannot walk, Chang decided to return with this year’s students and build them a new home.
Another wheelchair was given to a former builder from the community who lost three toes on each foot after being diagnosed with diabetes.
He had been bedridden for three months — until now.
“He’s now able to move around the community again,” Chang said.
One of the walkers went to an elderly man who had been confined to his house because of recent heavy rains and unpaved roads.
“After some instruction on how to actually use it — brakes, recline, footrest option, etc. — they were truly happy,” Chang said.
For his students, Chang said the trip is a hands-on lesson.
“They’re learning how to maximize donations in a way that can help the community attain sustainable development.”
Chang says he is thankful for the numerous donations from the community and the support of the airline, who agreed to waive their luggage fees.
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