USAID and San Diego Padres Team for Education in Dominican Republic

Written by: Jerry Milani on 30th October 2009

USAID and San Diego Padres Team for Education in Dominican Republic | read this item

Continuing partnerships between Major League Baseball and the Player’s Association with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the organization teamed up with the Major League Baseball-Dominican Development Alliance (MLB-DDA), and the San Diego Padres to donate $35,000 to the Instituto Dominicano de Desarrollo Integral (IDDI) for basic education activities in Najayo, Dominican Republic, earlier this week.

“Education is an important asset for the economic development of any country,” said U.S. Embassy to Santo Domingo’s ad interim Charge d’Affaires Christopher Lambert, who made the announcement along with San Diego Padres Associate Counsel Jeremy Horowitz. “To invest resources, time and effort in education is a sound investment.”

Lambert also encouraged current Dominican baseball players, academies and baseball fans to contribute through the MLB-DDA and praised the continued efforts of the San Diego Padres.

The donation will support the popular and successful after school program called “Espacios para Crecer,” or “Spaces to Learn.” Spaces to Learn augments official class time with additional opportunities for creative learning. The Spaces to Learn program was developed in 2003 by a U.S. Department of Labor grant that served to eradicate child labor. The donation will enable the Dominican Republic’s Fundacion Sur Futuro to implement the Spaces to Learn program in the public school system.

The USAID, MLB-DDA and the Padres partnership will also support the American Chamber of Commerce’s efforts toward teacher training in mathematics and reading to first through fourth grade public school teachers. For the past three years the Chamber managed a USAID-funded project that provides technical and financial assistance, which matches private sector investments in the public schools in order to improve the quality of basic education in the Dominican Republic.

The MLB-DDA was founded in November 2008 to tap the potential combined resources of baseball in community outreach programs in the Dominican Republic, a country which currently produces more than 20 percent of all signed MLB players. USAID provides financial support through a matching grant incentive fund. For more information about MLB-DDA, visit www.mlb-dda.org.

For more information about USAID, visit www.usaid.gov.

Topics: American Chamber Of Commerce, Associate Counsel, Baseball Fans, Basic Education, charity, Child Labor, Christopher Lambert, Class Time, Creative Learning, Dda, Development Alliance, Dominican Baseball Players, Dominican Republic, Education Activities, Instituto Dominicano, Interim Charge, International, Major League Baseball, Private Sector Investments, Public School Teachers, San Diego Padres, Sound Investment, U S Department Of Labor, Usaid