What We Do
Promote Access to Education
Promote Access to Education
Even with the Government's active campaign to promote access to education from preschool to college for all youth, the goal is not always attained for those with special needs.
Lifeline advocates integration of those with special needs into the regular school system, especially for those in the Kalinago Territory.
We encourage sponsors to help fund teaching assistants, equipment and transportation for children living with the challenge of blindness, deafness and mobility problems, as well as those with more covert challenges like autism, HIV and behavioral problems.
Poverty also denies children opportunity. Our Piton Foundation Scholarships have assisted some 75 secondary school students from the mountain village of Morne Prosper with a revolving book scheme, uniforms and extra classes, thanks to a tourist couple who visited the island over 10 years ago. We provide proposal writing support to various preschools. Notable friends of Lifeline are Charlotte Preschool and Castle Bruce Wesleyan Holiness Preschool, Castle Bruce Secondary School and Goodwill Primary School About The Piton Foundation
Over twenty years ago Pam and Trevor Thorn visited Lifeline in Dominica and departed full of concern for the children in the village of Morne Prosper. They were delayed en route home and met a couple from Switzerland who were interested in small scale philanthropic projects in the Caribbean. They had started helping in St Lucia and had an established trust fund called the Piton Foundation. Following that airport conversation and starting with a printer for the village Primary School, Janet and Jack Helfenstein sponsored books for five children who were being promoted to secondary school. We chose those who were not receiving scholarships or bursaries . Classically they came from less privileged backgrounds. Each year the children returned the books and this enabled a further five students to be helped . Over 100 children benefited from this practice over the years until finally the government took on the responsibility of providing text books to all children. These sponsored children are now teachers, nurses, police officers and farmers . The vast majority completed their secondary education and are grateful for the assistance The Piton Foundation also helped over dozen children with disabilities to access education, including Loik Charles, who is blind from infancy. He has recently graduated from a university in the US. |
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