Fundacion Marlee Jo

From a fan's point of view

I remember a few years back, in 2004,  when I visited my friends Limor (Nessa) and Ofir (Oro) for the first time since they moved to the Dominican Republic, the way they were with the local kids. On every trip, either long or short, driving or walking through towns and villages, whenever there were kids playing on the side of the road, and they always do, or stopping in and around the villages exploring, they always had a bag of sweets to hand out to the kids. The nice thing, I always thought, in the way they were doing it that they never gave away the bag to let the kids divide it between themselves. No, they would take a few out of the bag and hand them one by one to make sure everyone will get some. It didn't look as if that was all, from Nessa's and Oro's perspective; it wasn't just "to give the poor kid a sweet". They always enjoyed talking and playing with them before continuing on to their destination. It always looked as they enjoyed it themselves, maybe even more than the kids...
A few years later they had their own kids. The kids of "Agua Sabrosa". Over 60 kids currently (2011), and growing. I am one of their witnesses from the beginning. I heard the stories of how it was founded, the connection between the two with Marlee-Jo Jacobson, the woman behind the idea and the finance of the foundation at the start. I am watching it growing and developing through the years with their main drive of building a community center to provide good health and education with the hope to have a better future for these kids and the village in general. Most of the people in this charming village live without running water and until recently no electricity in the beautiful surroundings of El-Limon, Samana.
Three years ago (2008) Limor and Ofir bought a plot of land in the village but did not have enough money at the time to build the center. They put their mark in the middle of the plot, a little shed, just a floor and a roof so at least they would have a little space to hold their activities in rainy days.

Last year, 2010, they managed to start the constructions from donations received through the years. Unfortunately it is still not complete due to finance reasons, but they do have a building now with what is planned to be a classroom, a library room, a kitchen, a clinic and toilets. Still no doors or windows, but it's definitely a huge progress.
Their work is not limited to Carnivals and construction. The list is long. In addition to their weekly activities in the village they often take the kids on trips, help financing schools for the more misfortunes, medical treatments and medicines, handling emergency situations as well as the smooth running of the foundation. That sounds like impressive words, right? What does it mean though?... it means they keep lists and records of all their kids with their data such as date of birth (if known), family relations, education level and health problems. They have folders with all the kid's work and art from their activities, anything to keep track of their level and progress. They are constantly in search for donations and volunteer work of all kinds, professionals and non-professionals . They organize medical teams that come and spend a few days (voluntarily) to examine the kids, consult and treat them. They contact specialists to come and talk with the kids on important subjects as sex and safety. They collect and organize donations of any sort such as 2nd hand cloths and toys and manage its distribution fairly and evenly. In short, the work never ends. And did I mention that all this work is done by the two of them alone? Of course there are some temporary volunteers that come and go but also their visits and donations are all properly managed and recorded.

So do I sound as a sales person trying to promote this incredible work? Yes, I do. Because one year after my first visit to Agua Sabrosa, I see progress. I see the same kids as last year (and many more) a bit calmer, a bit more disciplined. I see the kids enjoying sitting down with board games, books and coloring papers, learning how to play chess and not just running outside playing or fighting being the macho man. How they are aware when they're doing something nasty. How they feel proud when they receive a positive feedback for doing something nice or are given a responsible task. Maybe the two of them won't change the world and maybe they won't be able to help the whole village but even if only one kid will be able to go to university and get a good education, that, in my view is worth the effort. Even if only just one girl in this village will not be pregnant before she turns 18, it will be worth it and should be encouraged, in my view. But how about the scenario of fulfilling their currently new dream of establishing a Montessori school in their ground and have 20 kids going on to university in the capital or abroad, how about that? Is that a fantasy from another dream, or is it just about possible to achieve?

Fundacion Marleejo website

View movies on YouTube channel

Contact Limor and Ofir: fundacionmarleejo@gmail.com

Carnaval Agua Sabrosa 2010

I arrived again last year, Feb 2010, 2 days before the Carnival, straight to work. First there was some shopping to be done In the capital (Santo Domingo). Some horns and noisy stuff, how else will it feel like a carnaval?... and a few rolls of stretchy strings to hold the masks they made with the kids in the previous months as part of the preparations and activities. We got home and the next day their terrace was filled with stuff, on the floor, in the closets, on the shelves, in the shed, and basically each empty space that could hold the decorations, masks, cloths, cardboard, paper, paint etc etc. From the stories I heard from Limor before my arrival and from all the stuff I saw when arrived I thought everything was ready, the only thing left to do was to attach the stretchy strings to the masks. But oh boy I was wrong, that was not the case, we still had one day before the Carnival, plenty of time to make more stuff, no? especially as there was still lots of materials to make stuff from, so, get to work and let your creativity flow, they told me. Ah, ye, right, my creativity... not much experience there, I thought to myself, what can I make...? hmmm.  So first thing, I claimed the bartender and waitress part. "You create and I'll serve you" I said and went to get the first cold beer, served and sat down to watch. Maybe they thought I needed some help to start, a little push, or maybe they were just pissed off and worried that they won´t have enough time to complete all they wanted if I sit and drink all day... whatever the reason was Ofir suggested that I will make the straps to the masks. Not too creative, simple job, make holes in the masks in the right position so it won´t fall of the kids´s faces, make sure they won´t be too long or too short (hm, how big are they?.... was thinking to myself) and tie them off. And so I did. Was happy to do something useful and a bit creative...:)  Then it was time to bring out the cloths. In they went in the bucket with some paint, creating colorful batik style cloth for costumes. I watched and learned how to make all kind of shapes for tops. I joined in and made some myself. They were not as nice and adventurous like the ones Limor made, but hey, it was a first for me. Have to start somewhere... When we finished making the costumes from the big pieces of cloths we had so much left over material from the shapes we cut off so we made some more masks out of those.
The carnaval was a great success and we all had lots of fun. Apparently it was so successful that this year there were about 600 people attending the carnaval from the whole area not just the people from Agua Sabrosa.

Fundacion Marleejo website

View movies on YouTube channel

Contact Limor and Ofir: fundacionmarleejo@gmail.com