Project Launch:

Free time for youth in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, is rarely spent constructively. When youth have free time, there are limited activities, especially for girls – boys sometimes have baseball – so they spend the majority of their free time sitting around. In 2009 World Connect’s Kids to Kids program provided $500 to run a “Bananas in Art” program which taught basic art skills as well as the concept that art is all around us and can be made with anything from paint to leaves. Each week brought discussions of different artists, how to use natural resources to make art and even a class on how to make art from garbage. Students also wrote poetry. At the end of the course an exhibit was held so that students could present their work to the community.