Making a Difference: Volunteers finding their passion, then using it to fuel efforts to help others (2024)

Humanitarian work can be inviting, invigorating, challenging, life-changing, heart-breaking, poignant, passion-driven and soul-nourishing. The needs are great anywhere you look, including the Dominican Republic. Volunteers donate school supplies, build homes and schools, give food packs to those in need, provide dental and chiropractic care, provide medical supplies and serve in so many other ways.

When people want to help, they rise up and do something by reaching out to help foundations and organizations or even finding other organizations that meet their passions.

Organizations like the Dominican Starfish Foundation in Canada; its sister organization Pal Humanitarian, based in Utah; and Youth Upliftment International (in French: Amélioration Jeunesse Internationale), a nonprofit organization working on behalf of impoverished Haitian youth living in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, have risen from scratch to assist those in need.

Louise ZoBell, Dominican Starfish Foundation director; Amarilis Ureña, the foundation’s in-country director; Pearl Giles, Pal Humanitarian director; and Kate Bateman, director of Youth Upliftment International, have dedicated their lives to helping others in the Dominican Republic. Each began small, and now they impact hundreds of people in various communities each year. They also receive help from many volunteers around the world.

Since April 2013, the Dominican Starfish Foundation has helped build, renovate and save more than 250 homes. They employ 20 full-time local workers and additional part-time workers. They have also built a distribution center and community center, helped with schools and partnered with dozens of people and organizations to accomplish much more than they originally thought would happen.

“I don’t think there is a waking moment in my life,” ZoBell said, “that I don’t think about or call someone about more we can do in the DR.”

Bateman’s school provides education at the Collège Amélioration Jeunesse — also fondly known as “Kate’s school” — and currently has almost 200 students enrolled in preschool to fundamental 6 (grade 6 equivalent). The school is snuggled between several buildings along a moderately busy street.

In July, ZoBell, Giles, Bateman and dozens of others collaborated on a new, much-needed project to build a shelter to help abused and trafficked women and girls. “Hosting a fundraising gala in Utah for our Women’s Shelter in the DR was truly an inspiration that came to me,” ZoBell said. “Within hours of proposing it, we had an incredible committee working toward a date only two months away.”

Many people rallied to make this long-awaited dream come true. The fundraising gala drew more than 200 people who participated in an auction with numerous items and services. They also donated money to help build the shelter.

ZoBell was overwhelmed with the help and the response to the needs of women and young girls in the Dominican Republic. “On the day of the gala, I nearly had a meltdown when we were setting up. It wasn’t because I was nervous,” she said. “It was because I was completely overwhelmed when I looked around and saw dozens of people working for this great cause, and it was an incredible success. I set a goal to raise $150,000 at the gala to build the shelter for women and girls, and we raised $150,030.”

So many people find ways to help that initially may seem small, but, by the time they come to fruition, they are large.

For example, Kim Hamilton, a local real estate agent, mother and grandmother, has a hobby of making hundreds of gourmet caramel apples to help build houses in the Dominican Republic.

“One hundred percent of the proceeds go to the Dominican Starfish Foundation to help with their home building projects,” Hamilton said. “Over the past two years, I have built four homes for families in need. This year, I did an extra project to help support three Haitian children attend school, be fed and clothed.”

Sisters Sheila Layton and Kathy Jones direct the student sponsorship program for Bateman’s students. Jones was hesitant to become involved until she received a gentle nudge from Layton and went to the Dominican Republic. “Once I saw my sister’s love and enthusiasm for the children and the poverty they lived in,” Jones said, “my heart was changed, and I wanted to help.”

The sisters’ mother, an educator, instilled in them a love of education. “We love these children,” Layton said, “and realize the only true way out of poverty is through education. Kate truly is a modern-day Mother Theresa. Her school is more than a school. It is a refuge from a difficult and cruel world.”

Brooke Stephens, an English as a second language and Spanish teacher, is a parent who wants her children to see firsthand the challenges of another country like the Dominican Republic. “I want my children to learn how much good they can do for people who don’t have food and homes,” she said. “Now, we are selling sourdough bread to raise money for a house. We know it will take a while, but we’re learning to care for others and how to make bread.”

Years ago, friends Trena Anderson and Heather Francis were looking for a group to join where they could volunteer doing foreign humanitarian assistance. Anderson had a chance meeting with a prior work contact — Lynn Giles, Pearl’s husband. He told her about what they were doing in the Dominican Republic.

Since then, Anderson has been to the Dominican Republic on various trips with friends, neighbors and family. She has picked up garbage; sorted supplies in the distribution center; offered classes; collected and purchased school supplies, basketballs and soccer balls, uniform shirts and shoes, and hygiene kits; donated hundreds of homemade IV boards, newborn items and neonatal intensive care unit equipment to a local hospital; sponsored a student; and much more.

“Speaking Spanish is always one of my highlights,” Anderson said. “Words would never be sufficient to explain the difference Louise, Pearl and Amarilis have made in the lives of so many. They are thoughtful, intuitive and know when/where to take action. Their faith and guidance can’t be duplicated. What a joy for me to be a small part of these amazing efforts.”

Over the past seven years, Francis, a finance manager, has organized volunteers to build a garden at Bateman’sschool, given needed training at a NICU, provided community outreach for breast feeding, provided teacher development at Youth Upliftment International and contacted businesses to help support fundraising efforts.

“People are generous and talented and willing to see the needs of others and help,” Francis said. “I am in awe of their giving hearts and gritty minds.”

Brent and Erin Christensen of Alpine have helped make it possible for children who attend the Youth Upliftment School (Bateman’s school) to enjoy a hot lunch during the summer months when there is no school or lunches. For most of them, this may be the only meal they eat all day. Many mothers and toddlers also benefit from the lunches.

Tamara Ashworth Fackrell, a renowned Utah divorce and mediation attorney with a doctoral degree in marriage, family and human development, discovered the Dominican Republic through her son, who worked with the Dominican Starfish Foundation’s building crew. She decided to give back to something she was passionate about: building families. Now, she provides “a wedding in box” for those who cannot afford a wedding.

“I wanted to help the Dominican Starfish Foundation’s community center to host a level of a wedding similar to what we host in our Utah backyards,” Fackrell said. “When you give people what is your passion, that’s where it pays you back. … That’s what makes the difference and keeps you in the community long-term.”

Other organizations have gone to the Dominican Republic and used the Dominican Starfish Foundation’s Community Center in Puerto Plata to provide sewing classes, dental work, massage and physical therapy, and chiropractic services. Others provided leadership training, culinary programs and other educational activities to improve employment skills.

Humanitarian work reaps blessings far beyond most people’s expectations. Hamilton has witnessed so many miracles. “I know that God’s hand is in this work and that he cares about his children everywhere,” Hamilton said. “It’s amazing to see how he magnifies my efforts. God is in the details, and he cares about the one.”

ZoBell, Giles, Bateman, Ureña and other representatives of humanitarian organizations have a message for those who want to help: every person, every organization, can make a difference. It truly begins with small, tiny, little drips, which will eventually become a mighty gushing of passion and compassion for those most in need.

For those who wish to help people who are in great need, send an email ZoBell at dominicanstarfish@gmail.com or find other humanitarian groups that align with your passion.

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