Villa Altagracia is the easternmost province of the Dominican Republic. The name “La Altagracia” (High Grace) commemorates a painting, Our Lady of La Altagracia, brought from Spain in the early 16th century. Our Lady of La Altagracia is known to the Dominicans as a protector of the Island, to create miracles.

Sadly, as we drove up the hill of Altagracia, we couldn’t help but notice that a miracle is what this village needed the most. We noticed the roads were unpaved, uneven, and more so just paths of orange dirt. The houses are shacks, made of tree branches, plastic and debris from the streets, the bedrooms separated by tarps and bed sheets, sometimes, a single room holding a family of seven. As we made our way up, we spotted a young boy, fully nude – gripping onto his mother’s hand. She didn’t seem much more lively than the boy. Her skin was cracked and her spirit seemed tired and broken. These people aren’t living, they are merely surviving as best they can to provide for themselves, and their children.

La Altagracia is suffering from poverty.
Poverty. It isn’t being “broke”, it isn’t frugality, or living paycheck-to-paycheck, it isn’t going without your television for a month or cutting back on extravagances.
Poverty is real. It exists. For the people of La Altagracia, it is a normalcy, and it is a harsh reality. These people cannot turn on a sink to wash their hands or brush their teeth. They cannot flush a toilet or take a shower. They don’t have access to fresh, running water. In extreme hot temperatures, these people have to walk a mile and a half to get water from a lake and then walk back with only the amount of water they are able to carry. These people lack countless luxuries that most people take for granted, they don’t know anything else.

Any donations will be utilized to build a public restroom and a well in the village of Altagracia. In the future, we have planned on offering additional resources throughout the village. As for now, we are taking baby steps to provide them with necessities. You have the ability to provide our leaders of tomorrow with the resources they need to build their minds today. We need at least six notebooks per child, books, pens, and other basic school supplies – $10 per child is all it takes to change a life and provide an opportunity for a higher education. Your donations will help make this dream turn into the miracle this village so desperately needs.

All donations will go out to the Village of Altagracia in Dominican Republic. Because of your generous giving, Villa Altagracia will be provided with water, a public restroom, educational resources, and an overall growth and unity in community living. For the Silo, Jessica Kirk.

Please visit their website at Altagracias.org