News: Dominican Republic

Three-year-old Martina had never been in so much pain in her life. She had caught scabies, a common parasite in the Dominican Republic, and had scratched the little bumps that covered her legs until they opened and became infected. Desperate for relief, Martina's mother took her to a public hospital in the city, where she was diagnosed. But without money for medicine, Martina's mother could do nothing to help her daughter.

Nine-year-old Estrella can't remember the first time she met her sponsor, Ginny. "My mother told me that Ginny used to come to my house and pray for me when I was two years old, but I don't remember that," says Estrella. "But she followed us around everywhere!" laughs Ginny, who has visited Estrella in the community of Don Bosco, Dominican Republic, every year since then, and has watched her grow up.

Reudy Cuevas Matos grew up in the village of Los Robles, Dominican Republic, where a large clearing strewn with garbage served as the only baseball field. He spent his days playing there with his friends, but he says, "We didn't have a coach, and I didn't know how to bat or pitch. We just played with friends."

Patricia Cuevas believes that it was God who sent Children of the Nations (COTN) to her village of Los Robles. Nothing short of a miracle could explain the transformation that Patricia experienced at ten years old, when her sponsors stepped into her life, and she began attending COTN's School in Los Robles. Now, at 24, she looks back on her life and wonders what it would have looked like if she hadn't had the education and spiritual support her sponsors made possible.