New Training Center Opens for Residents of Batey Bienvenido

New Training Center Opens for Residents of Batey Bienvenido
Batey Bienvenido, Manoguayabo 2/6/2012

Unlike other existing centers, this one will have a space available for psychological counseling for HIV/AIDS patients.

The First Lady said this center will offer training for all Dominicans, male or female and regardless of abilities. It will be a place where everyone can come to acquire the tools to work, to compete, to innovate and to try their hands at starting up a new business…

First Lady, Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, handed over the new Progresando Production and Training Center in Batey Bienvenido where residents of the area, through education and training, will achieve individual freedom which is only possible when people are the protagonists of their own destiny. This center, unlike others, will have an office where HIV/AIDS patients can receive psychological counseling.

The First Lady said this center will offer training for all Dominicans, male or female and regardless of abilities. It will be a place where everyone can come to acquire the tools to work, to compete, to innovate and to try their hands at starting up a new business that will enable them to generate the necessary income to have a dignified, productive and happy life.

“Generating income is the source of prosperity. It represents the sure road to overcome poverty and social exclusion as it bolsters self-esteem in people and makes them capable of turning challenges into opportunities. It also helps keep people away from vices, bad influence and other social evils,” stressed Mrs. Cedeño de Fernández.

Margarita Cedeño affirmed that this Production and Training Center will be part of the continued promotion of progress in this community. “The hope is that the tools we place in your hands are like the baseball bat, glove and ball that our magnificent and glorious baseball players use and that you will use them as instruments to throw out-of-bounds whatever it is that is impeding you from reaching your goals. Our hope is also that you will enthusiastically pair these tools with the positive initiatives that contribute to making you even braver people than you already are.”

This Production and Training Center will provide the citizens of Batey and surrounding areas with the tools necessary to break the barriers of poverty, unemployment, marginalization and exclusion. It will also help integrate people into the productive and labor market to ultimately achieve a better quality of life for themselves and their families.

Details about the Training Center

The building was constructed at a cost of $13,074.63 Dominican pesos with the generous financial support from the Republic of China, Taiwan. It was built on a piece of land donated by the Committee of Organized Neighbors of the community. The Training Center has classrooms for pastry making, electric appliance repair, cosmetology and haircutting, computer use and theory classes. There are also administrative offices, employees’ kitchen, reception area, bathrooms, storerooms, cistern, drinking water system, garden area, water filter system, septic tanks, perimeter fence and a gazebo for recreational activities for the community, to name some of the facilities.

There is also a Hope Space (Espacio de Esperanza) where children between the ages of 3 & 5 can receive early education, endorsed by the Ministry of Education, in classes given by professionals specialized in early childhood education. They will use educational games to stimulate learning and to boost the cognitive capacities, motor skills and socialization of the children. This will take place while the children’s mothers are taking professional development classes to prepare themselves to join the labor market.

The mothers will have the opportunity to take classes in repairing household items such as appliances, electrical installation and maintenance, computer repair, appliance repair as well as bread-baking, being a baker’s assistant, a pastry chef, assistant pastry chef and cake decorating.

In the area of computers, digital literacy courses will be offered, computer technicians, management of Office, webpage design, accounting assistant, executive secretary and fiscal accounting courses. Other courses on offer will be haircutting and styling, hair-coloring (stripping, dyes, permanents), how to give facials and apply make-up (make-up and facial cleansing), permanent make-up application or micro-pigmentation and tattooing and fingernail design.

The opening of this Training Center brings the total to 25 training centers, up and running in the country. In Santo Domingo they can be found in the sectors of Cristo Rey, Villa Juana, Capotillo, Herrera, Villa Duarte, Manoguayabo; Remanzo and Los Guarícanos, Villa Mella; in Andrés and Los Botados de Boca Chica. They are also established in Guerra, Don Juan, Yamasá and in the head municipality of Monte Plata, Vicente Noble, Barahona, Samaná, Santiago, Jarabacoa, Mao, El Seibo, Villa Altagracia and Favidrio, in San Cristóbal and in Los Cartones en Azua.