OBUNTU Culinary School (Dominican Republic)

Poverty and lack of education

The island of Hispaniola is shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Both countries are among the poorest countries in the world. Young girls and women in particular are victims of poverty, lack of education, illiteracy, hunger, disease, abuse, child marriage, child pregnancy, violence, prostitution, and so on...

Many people from Haiti flee to the Dominican Republic, which is booming economically due to tourism, with the hope of finding work and being able to feed their families. However, mostly precisely these people are affected by racism and social and political oppression.

Education is, in the long run, the most powerful way to break the cycle of poverty and grievances and to ensure that people from the poorest backgrounds can continue to develop positively on their own.

The OBUNTU Culinary School
 
The OBUNTU Culinary School is built in Cabarete (Dominican Republic) and integrated into the Montessori School of the Mariposa DR Foundation. An average of 150 girls from the DR and Haiti between the ages of 7 and 24 from the poorest backgrounds will attend the school. The school will focus on the following:
 
1. Incorporating all school subjects
 
The OBUNTU Culinary School offers many opportunities to support the school subjects of the Mariposa DR Foundation with learning content in practice:

Science (states of matter, gardening with your own food, food from around the world).
Technology (devices, machines, functions)
Computer science (internet research, word processing, spreadsheets)
Art (food art)
Mathematics (weighing, measuring, dividing, multiplying, estimating)
Languages (Spanish, English, French)
Religion and culture (eating habits)
Geography (food cultures of the world, national dishes, beverages)
Health and social education (food safety, ingredients, balanced diet)

2. Vocational preparation

Hygiene is extremely important, especially in the poorest regions. From the age of 7, children learn how to handle food properly. By the time the students are 24 years old, they will have acquired many skills that are especially important for the hospitality industry (restaurants, hotels, tourism). Tourism is the fastest growing industry in the Dominican Republic.
 
Goal: Children from the poorest backgrounds have a very good chance to have a decent job in tourism or to become self-employed in the hospitality industry and thus be able to stand on their own two feet. Educated mothers will themselves pass on education to their children, thus breaking the cycle of poverty and achieving a positive development of the personal and regional economy.