Joshua 1:Nine

This Year's Focus: Education in the Dominican Republic is extremely inadequate. National statistics show the literacy rate is quite high however, in Fondo Negro and other outlying areas where education is not supported this is not the case. Within the kids we support less than 30% are able to read and write. A project to increase literacy is being spearheaded by a teacher in the middle school (ages 8-13) and we are supporting this project by providing books, teacher's training, access to internet and the resources available there as well as other classroom tools. Funds from the Kitsap Great Give this year will go toward this project as well as feeding the kids.

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With fast hands and quick feet, the Dominican physiology makes them excellent baseball players. With this discovery by MLB executives and scouts, came the realization there was opportunity to recruit boys from the DR at little cost and high reward. Since wages are generally very low, any amount of money in a signing bonus and promised salary was a windfall.

Unfortunately, with this discover also came problems. Boys became a commodity for the business of baseball and it was common for them to go to training camps as young as the age of 10 or 11 with the promise of big signing bonuses and a future of fame and fortune. Many of these facilities had deplorable conditions. The boys would spend all of their time playing baseball, neglecting their studies and their health, playing through injuries or receiving subpar medical attention. Living conditions had boys in shacks with no windows or running water. It quickly became a crisis.

In addition to potential long-term personal injury, this led to significant problems when the boys failed to sign a contract with a Major League Team. They would leave camp unhealthy and uneducated and try to assimilate back into their home community with a sense of shame because they were unable to fulfill their perceived duty to their family by earning a contract and associated signing bonus. Rather than taking the boys and their families out of poverty, this practice instead perpetuated the problem and in fact, made it worse.

Today, thankfully, things are beginning to improve. MLB has recognized the problems and has instituted regulations for their teams' Dominican academies, for which each MLB Franchise has one, and this has improved the living and training situations for players once they sign a contract with MLB and move into the training leagues. Boys are no longer eligible to sign a contract with MLB until they are 16.5 years old and scouts are scrutinized for practices that take advantage of players by taking large portions of bonus checks a payment for services.

Joshua 1:Nine hopes to go one step further. Less than 1% of all Dominican boys who want to play baseball will ever sign with MLB and less than 1% of those boys will ever make it to America to have a chance to play at the Minor League level. The percentage that moves from the Minors to the Majors is even smaller still. It is a very small chance but a chance we want to encourage and advance if the boys have the dream and adequate skill. Beyond baseball however, we want to do more.

Our goal is four-fold. Primarily, we want to build character and a foundation of morality. As believers in Christ, we want to share this belief with boys who are not yet introduced to him and for those who know Christ, we want to give them tools to deepen that relationship. We want to lead them into a life that has morals and values that glorify and exemplify Christ. We want to strengthen the power of family and help our team grow into God glorifying, family and community leading men by surrounding them with mentors who are doing that in their own lives and can pour into them as Godly examples. In turn, we want to give our players the tools to mentor to those outside the program and to those who are younger and following them up through the program. Our prayer is this will ultimately create a shift in culture and will lead to generations of men who support their families, understand the value of education and ultimately change their communities for the better.

In addition to introducing or deepening the boys' relationship with Jesus Christ we support the education process in the DR by providing tutoring, mentoring and holding our players to high standards around school attendance and success...