Child at School in El Factor

Imagine if there were children who were filled with hope all because of you? 

Imagine your hands helping Sister Anna of the Missionary Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.  She arrived in the rural village of El Factor in the Dominican Republic and found it to be blessed with beautiful weather and warm, welcoming people.  She also discovered that the village had no educational system for the youngest children.  Parents were very busy, farming the land to grow what they ate or selling used goods that they scavenged to buy luxuries like cooling oil or salt.  This left young children roaming the streets of the village, unattended.

Sister Anna did what any good Missionary would do: she reached out with God’s love and asked for a helping hand  to change the lives of the children. 

Sister began El Mundo de los Niños – the World of Children preschool.  In a simple concrete, one room building, she taught the children the basics of colors, numbers and letters. And, of course, each day was filled with the most important lesson of all – who Jesus was and how much He loved them.    

Young Dominican women, inspired by Sister Anna, started their training as Sisters.  This initiated the faith formation of El Factor. And a native Pennsylvanian, Sister Lisa Valentini, began as a Principal of El Mundo de los Niños.  She brought changes . . . No matter what the weather; the little ones had to walk outside, across a sometimes rain-swollen, dangerous creek to an outside latrine built for adults. And there were no school supplies, outdated educational materials, no desks, books in poor condition and a dreary, drab building.  Hardly a place to inspire young learners!

Sister Valentini asked for a hand to help. She returned to the states to work, but continues to regularly visit with teams of young Missionaries, many from Philadelphia. Today the school is a bright and cheery place! The building was transformed with paint and a new facade, desks and chairs are in place and school supplies arrive on a regular basis.   The children going to the pre-school are so well-educated that many skip kindergarten and are advanced to the local village elementary school.