Christmas Hampers

With the help of friends, family, and church community, we were able to support the needs of Dominican families just in time for Christmas.

Fausto, and his wife Maricela were able to deliver much needed food hampers including poultry/fish to many families in La Cienaga. A call out to Hand in Hands supporters helped us to reach our goal.

Hand in Hands continues to have a pulse on whats happening in the communities we support, along with our in-country partners hard at work. Weekly communications to the field in the Dominican and regular updates between Canada and Costa Rica help us ensure we keep abreast of the situations on the ground.

In mid February, we will send hampers again to the families/community we support. It’s been a privilege, and a blessing for Hand in Hands, and our supports to be involved in bridging the gap for community access to adequate nutrition. Especially as populations in the Dominican Republic were also seeing a rise in the Omicron variant of Covid 19. Proper nutrition and access to adequate food may be the difference between living and dying .

A typical Dominican Christmas Meal.

Samaritian's Purse Christmas Shoe Boxes

In November we got together to assemble more shoe boxes for Samaritian’s purse. This year Lana Viznaugh pitched in with some supplies. 27 boxes in all were made to donate to the cause. Each year we endeavour to do more. Thanks to Melissa, Darryl, Lana, and Darlene for taking part.

Some of our loot!

Food Hampers Outreach in La Ciénaga, Dominican Republic

On November 13th, our field partner Fausto and his wife Maricela did another food hamper outreach for Hand in Hands. Several families benefited from the food distribution. Fausto and his wife have spent years living in the community. They have a pulse on the needs, and most vulnerable families in the barrio.

The effects of the covid- 19 pandemic have hit the poor hardest. Most of the children attend school to get educated as well as nourished. The majority of schools feed a small breakfast and a full lunch to the children. With parents out of work, and schools closed for the majority of the pandemic, undernourishment and illness have taken hold like never before. Tropical diseases such as; Dengue, Malaria, Chikungunya, and other parasitic disease effect the undernourished more gravely than those that are of a healthy body weight with a varied diet and proper hydration. Perhaps the best news is a strong (fully) vaccinated rate of 51% in the country which aids in the benefit of protection from covid 19, which would have an increased potential for morbidity and mortality in vulnerable populations.

Our goal at Hand in Hands is to continue to reach the most marginalized families in the community on a frequent basis. With the help of our partners, we aim to deliver hampers to 10-20 families every 6-8 weeks. Monthly contribution and fund raising efforts will support our goal.

Family Food Hamper

Annual Highway Clean Up

Despite the Covid lock downs, we were able to once again clean up the community as a way to raise funds for Hand in Hands Projects. We were short a few helping hands due to Covid illness but nonetheless Melissa lead the group through a quick clean up!

About a dozen were out to lend a hand and collect highway trash. We are looking forward to the adventure again next spring. Go Team!!

Advancing Education in the Dominican Republic

Hand in Hands was able to provide laptops to students who have successfully completed High School and will be commencing University studies! Kelly, one of the recipients will be studying Civil Engineering in the coming year. In addition, one of the laptops will be used by the teaching staff at El Colegio Costambar.

Miguerline, described as an excellent student will be studying Lab Technology in university. She has overcome all odds to become a leader in her community, and her family. Her income will support the needs of her family in the future.

Outreach to Las Galeras, Cabarete, and Puerto Plata August 2021

We are always humbled by what we experience while here. Even after living here 3 years, I am amazed by the resilience, and the tenacity of the Dominican people.

During our time in the Dominican Republic we enjoyed rest, quality time with locals and foreigners, and managed to do some outreach in the communities of Las Galeras, Cabarete, and Puerto Plata. We have located another partner in a community close to Cabarete (known as a kite surfing mecca). Fausto, a committed Christian man and his wife Maricela are outstanding community leaders giving so much of their time and resources to ensure the least of us is cared for. This includes elderly, widows, single moms , and the terminally ill. They are the kind of couple that you meet and instantly like and trust. The couple are eager to work with Hand in Hands as often as we are able. They want to be our hands on the ground here in the DR. There is much work to do from home to support future endeavours to give our fellow brothers and sisters a ‘hand up’. We invite you to join us in the task. A special thanks goes out to the many donors who stepped up on a moments notice to help us purchase desperately needed food hampers for two communities and an orphanage.

Calling All Team Members!!

Hand in Hands is officially expanding. We are excited to be in the planning phases of our team to Costa Rica in the Summer/Fall of 2021! In light of the pandemic, and closed borders to travel, we have had to postpone our 2020 trip by a year. But, we are still forging ahead excited for the opportunity.

Our trip includes;

• Air, fees, and taxes from Calgary to San Jose Return.

• Transfers to and from the hotel and all other excursions.

• Meals, and housekeeping. *laundry extra as required

• Materials

• Lodging

• Boutique Coffee Farm tour ~ Sircoff Coffee Farm.

• Trip to La Paz Hotel and Resort (includes Templo , Magia Blanca, Encantada, Escondida, and La Paz falls) and an animal sanctuary.

• Finally, our trip includes a 2 night, 3 day expedition to Manuel Antonio Park. Opportunities to visit parks, zip lines, and ocean sports during your free time. * meal fees to be determined for beach weekend (we are working on breakfast inclusion).

Our Next Team ‘StrongHands 2021’ will be posted soon. Stay tuned!

Location: Virtual , RSVP to TreasurerHIH@gmail.com closer to the date.

At our meeting, we will discuss fees, vaccines/health needs, what we will be doing there, and general preparation.

To answer questions or concerns you may have as of now, please email PresidentHIH@gmail.com or Director2HIH@gmail.com.

We need you, Yes you!

Join us on a trip, ask us about board and committee opportunities, partake in our local volunteerism, use your talents to craft items for our various kits we gift ( to newborns, patients, youth, and low income families). Tell your friends and family about us! There's no better way to make an impact than to become an active advocate yourself.

HIH 1st annual Highway Cleanup Initiative in partnership with the City of Calgary

On September 19th Hand in Hands members at large participated in our first annual City of Calgary highway clean up fundraiser. It was the perfect platform to respect physical distancing and get out as a group. Many kilometres were walked by an energetic group. There were about 16 of us walkers and drivers. We are supper thrilled at the support and the turn out. Looking forward to next years highway clean up. Thanks to Melissa for organizing and executing the planning and details.

Team Primavera Teaching/Medical Outreach

At the clinic in Tamboril with our partner MINIPEVID and Dr Rivera (Far right-lab coat)

Our team arrived in Puerto Plata and were transferred to Santiago with our driver Giovanny. The team was welcomed by our partner Dr Ruth Rivera and her husband Pastor Edwin the next day at her clinic site in Tamboril. It was a busy week of adult and child clinic with Dr. Rivera where 140 kids and adults visited our clinic. We also had the opportunity to speak at a school to nearly 300 youth! While there,  we distributed hundreds of Days for Girls kits and some hygiene kits. We also had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Licey public hospital doing inservices and teaching skills clinics on Airway, Breathing, and Circulation with an introduction to recognizing sepsis. We donated stethoscopes to each nurse and BP kits to the two head nurses. Our visit was well received and they are anxious to have us back. 

Licey Hospital- Staff inservice

Days for Girls distribution and health talk to Polytech High School in Tamboril. 

Young mens class- health talk with Gabriel, a resident MD working with Dr. Rivera.

Our week ended with a visit up the mountain to Jarabacoa where we did a hospital visit delivering much needed new born baby and post partum kits as well as uniform scrubs for the nurses. We took the opportunity to spend time with Nany, our HIH intermediary, to deliver food hampers to our adopted community of Cristo Rey. A heavy rain and some flooding prevented our hike to Jimenoa falls but next time....

Vicky Bednall delivering a HIH food hamper to an elder in Cristo Rey.

Our second week we headed up to Puerto Plata/Sosua region to work with our partner Kate with Youth Upliftment International. Kate does amazing work with the Haitian community. Her love for the culture , and the kids is very authentic. We invited Dr. Rivera to host the clinic with us while we served in the community of Bello Costero. In tandem with our medical clinic, we also had the opportunity to support the teachers with the 3-8 year olds on classroom projects and some Canadian artwork :)

The kiddos just loved that Meghan!

Melissa and the gang.

Sarah helping in class. 

A couple days winding down at Sosua by the Sea