Baseball, Disability Services Take Shape in the Dominican Republic
Danelle Putnam helps a young patient assemble a puzzle during a visit to a government facility for children with disabilities in the Dominican Republic.
Using the country’s love of baseball and ministry to children, especially those with disabilities, LCMS workers are reaching out to people in need in Dominican Republic.
Rev. Walter Ries and Danelle Putnam work in partnership with the Dominican Republic Partners Forum, including LCMS World Relief and Human Care, LCMS World Mission, Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services, Central American Lutheran Mission Society (CALMS), St. Michaels Lutheran Church in Ft. Myers, Fla., and Marco Lutheran Church in Marco Island, Fla., to share mercy with the Dominicans.
Baseball camps
The small community of Palmar Arriba in northern Dominican Republic is a baseball town. Jose Reyes, a star player for the New York Mets, grew up in the poverty-stricken town.
Rev. Walter Ries doesn’t play baseball. But with the assistance of CALMS and a team led by Palmer Muench from Brandenton Sports Academy in Brandenton, Fla., he led a baseball camp in Palmar Arriba with great success. He has since developed relationships with coaches and a number of players.
“Baseball has been a catalyst to open many doors,” writes Ries in a report to the forum.
He hopes to offer a second baseball camp in 2008 for coaches in the larger city of Santiago.
Disability services
The Dominican Republic government provides limited services to families with children who have disabilities.
Barb Below, director of recognized service organizations for LCMS World Relief and Human Care, makes friends with a young boy at a government facility for children with disabilities in the Dominican Republic.
“Many families don’t have the resources to safely care for their children with disabilities at home,” said Barb Below, director of Recognized Service Organizations with LCMS World Relief and Human Care. “In some situations it is safer for them to place their children in a state-run institution.” Many parents have come to this conclusion, and about 40 children are currently on a waiting list to enter government facilities.
Missionary Danelle Putnam developed a relationship with the director of the country’s facilities for children with disabilities, and is making strides to improve conditions for institutionalized children.
She asked Putnam to submit a proposal to assess the system and facilities. With the help of Bethesda Lutheran Homes and Services and IMPACT, Putnam worked with a team to assess the facilities and submit the proposal, suggesting the Dominican Republic commit the money usually spent to operate the facilities on supportive services for families and alternative care for the children. For example, providing a stipend and training for families would enable parents to care for their own children at home. Funding would also provide group home opportunities, foster care homes, and physical, occupational and other therapy for the children.
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