NewsWhore
02-08-2011, 03:20 PM
Residents of La Cienega, La Barquita, Sabana Perdida, Gualey, San Felipe and Punta, in Villa Mella, Cristo Rey and Capotillo are calling for free school breakfasts to be restored. Students, fathers and mothers, priests, pastors, and community leaders described the decision by Education Minister Melanio Paredes to suspend the delivery of free breakfasts to public schools indefinitely as a "step backwards" and a "crime".
Brigida Ramos lives in La Barquita with her four children, who are 3, 5, 7 and 9. Her husband works as a messenger and earns a salary of RD$5,000 every two weeks. "He gives me RD$200 for food, but if there is no school breakfast, I have to make it at home and besides I have to give them ten pesos so they can buy something, then the money doesn't stretch far enough", she said.
Diario Libre tells how Ana Delia Feliz, a 13-year old eighth grade student at the Ramon Matias Mella School in Villa Mella, wants her reasons to be heard: "I come to school without breakfast because my mother goes to work, and I need my breakfast. They say that it makes you sick, but I prefer that instead of taking it away, they give us something else like a plantain with salami; when they gave us that before, none of us ever got sick", said the thin girl, with her dark skin and little pigtails, a resident of "El Fundo de Villa Mella" where she lives with her four younger brothers. One of the people in the principal's office at Ana Delia's school said that yesterday they had to take care of several children who fainted from hunger inside the school. The person asked not to be identified because of a fear of reprisals. "This affects us a lot. If the breakfast doesn't have any quality, that's bad, but if they do not provide it, it is worse, because many of the families around here don't have any way of providing this meal for their children", said Pura Olimpia Bastardo, who heads the Maria Blanco Neighborhood Association in La Cienega.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Brigida Ramos lives in La Barquita with her four children, who are 3, 5, 7 and 9. Her husband works as a messenger and earns a salary of RD$5,000 every two weeks. "He gives me RD$200 for food, but if there is no school breakfast, I have to make it at home and besides I have to give them ten pesos so they can buy something, then the money doesn't stretch far enough", she said.
Diario Libre tells how Ana Delia Feliz, a 13-year old eighth grade student at the Ramon Matias Mella School in Villa Mella, wants her reasons to be heard: "I come to school without breakfast because my mother goes to work, and I need my breakfast. They say that it makes you sick, but I prefer that instead of taking it away, they give us something else like a plantain with salami; when they gave us that before, none of us ever got sick", said the thin girl, with her dark skin and little pigtails, a resident of "El Fundo de Villa Mella" where she lives with her four younger brothers. One of the people in the principal's office at Ana Delia's school said that yesterday they had to take care of several children who fainted from hunger inside the school. The person asked not to be identified because of a fear of reprisals. "This affects us a lot. If the breakfast doesn't have any quality, that's bad, but if they do not provide it, it is worse, because many of the families around here don't have any way of providing this meal for their children", said Pura Olimpia Bastardo, who heads the Maria Blanco Neighborhood Association in La Cienega.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)