Gender Equality Dominican Republic Project #11863

Mariposa Center For Girls

by The Mariposa DR Foundation

Project Report | Jun 18, 2024
Courage, Toughness, and Heart: Sports at the Mariposa Center for Girls

By Antarah Chopra | Executive Assistant

Mariposa girl hitting it out of the park!

At the Mariposa Center for Girls, every girl is an athlete with the potential to accomplish anything she wants. We know that participating in sports boost self-esteem, build supportive and uplifting communities, teach lifelong skills of resilience and determination, and allow girls to feel empowered in their own abilities.

Even though women’s sports are internationally on the rise, in the Dominican Republic, sports are still dominated by boys and men. Most girls who live in poverty do not even have money for school tuition, books, uniforms, and transportation, let alone to play on a sports team.

Nearly every neighborhood in the Dominican Republic has a baseball field which is filled at all hours by boys’ and mens’ teams who dream of going pro abroad. In fact, MLB teams collectively spend $90 million USD in the Dominican Republic every year in developing male sports talent. Hardly any resources, if any at all, are dedicated to empowering girls and women through sports.

At Mariposa, girls have the opportunity to participate in a plethora of sports from baseball, volleyball, gymnastics, tennis, biking and soccer to surfing, swimming, stand-up paddleboarding, and kite surfing.

Throughout the year at Mariposa, the girls participate in a summer camp that is full of sports both in and outside of the Center, play in Mariposa’s own Olympic Games with high school students from the United States, and explore their athletic interests and abilities by expert coaches and athletes.

If you visit Cabarete, you can see Mariposa girls dominating the surf waters in Encuentro, cheering their teammates on as they score a homerun at the baseball field, and giving each other high fives after learning a new skill in swimming–and most of the time, they’re all wearing skirts!

As pro-surfer Bethany Hamilton says, “Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.”

Thank you to our incredible community for supporting all of our programs at the Mariposa Center for Girls, and especially those who believe in the power of women’s sports. For those who would like to support our summer camp, please consider making a donation today.

Pool time is everyone's favorite!

Making tennis accessible to every Mariposa!

Mariposa girls are great surfers too!

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Feb 22, 2024
Farm to Table Fun

By Jessica Lawson | Co-founder

Girls gardening at the center.

At Mariposa, we remain deeply committed to helping girls developing life-long, healthy habits, protecting the environment and respecting the abundant natural resources the Dominican Republic has to offer.

With our garden thriving and our new teaching kitchen up and running, we have been able to implement an entirely plant-based nutrition program, serving nearly 1,000 delicious, colorful and healthy meals and snacks to our girls, staff and volunteers every week!

In addition, we've started cooking classes that allow the girls to get creative and develop recipes with the organic produce straight from the garden. We know that when girls take ownership of what they eat and their health, it will have a ripple effect throughout the entire community. As large contributers to household responsibilities, most young girls are at least partially responsible for preparing meals for their families. They are proud to implement their new knowledge and skills in their homes!

Shifting to a whole-food, plant-forward diet while on site, is not only beneficial to our girls' health, it's a tribute to their culture and an acknwledgement of the extraordinary life-giving resources that their country has to offer. The Dominican people have been living off of the land for generations and our farm to table gardening and cooking classes focus on learning new and exciting ways to prepare both familiar and some new ingredients.

Growing and preparing their own healthy food is empowering and it allows them to expand their palettes and develop new skills that will help keep them healthy and influence the people closest to them.

Like everything we do at the Mariposa Center for Girls, making it fun goes a long way. We work together to come up with new recipes and hope to create a cookbook in the future. Every single girl on campus gets involved in some aspect of gardening, recipe development, shopping & budgeting, cooking and serving. It brings such joy to everyone's day at the Center.

The Mariposa Center for Girls has truly become a wellness sanctuary over the years and this is all possible because of the generosity and support of people like you.

Thank you for being a part of our team!

Making plant based sushi!

Mexican inspired vegan lunch at the Center.

Smoothies with fresh fruit from the garden.

Plant based lunch is served.

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Oct 25, 2023
A Self-care Sanctuary for Vulnerable Girls

By Jessica Lawson | Co-founder

A self-care spa day at the Center.

Being a teenage girl is hard. Being a teenage girl living in extreme poverty is more difficult than most of us could ever imagine. All teens are under an immense amount of stress and pressure. Between school, peer relationships, changing bodies and trying to understand who they are and what they want to become in the world, it’s a lot. On top of everything, poor girls are also dealing with being vulnerable to early marriage and childbirth, missing out on school because of domestic responsibilities, food and housing insecurity and lack of access to quality health care.

Health and wellness has always been central to our programming at The Mariposa Center for Girls and we are proud to be a true haven where girls can develop regular self-care practices that are essential to their success. Encouraging them and allowing them to tend to their individual physical and emotional needs helps prevent burnout, safeguard their physical and mental health and wellbeing, relieve stress, build resilience and increase their confidence and happiness.

At the Center, all girls have the opportunity to practice yoga and meditation, options for increased physical activity including swimming, biking, dance, volleyball, softball and tennis. They are served healthy plant-based meals and snacks. They have multiple spaces dedicated to personal care where they can get ready for school in a private space with clean water and access to hygiene items and the multiple outdoor learning spaces provide a calming environment for getting work done.

Once the girls come through the gate at Mariposa, they know that they can leave whatever is happening in the world behind for a little while and just focus on themselves and spend quality time with their peers and mentors in a safe and beautiful space that’s just for them. They know that they are fully supported and have access to trusted adults who can help them access any physical or mental health care needs that arise.

The sanctuary that we have been able to create together with your support is making a true difference in the daily lives of vulnerable girls who often feel unsafe in their world. The Center is their happy place and because of people like you, we continue to evolve and build and provide even more support to ensure that our girls are happy, healthy and well cared for so that they can reach their full potential.

None of this would be possible without you!

Making healthy smoothies.

Plant-based healthy lunch.

Daily yoga practice at the Center.

Meditation and mindfulness.

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