Mariposa Center For Girls

Dear Friends, 

Thanks to supporters like you, the Mariposa Center for Girls is becoming more beautiful every day! The Mariposa Center, a home away from home for 150 girls, provides a refuge for Dominican and Haitian girls to learn, play and grow in a safe, nurturing environment. On our campus, we are educating the leaders of tomorrow. For this reason, we take special care in designing a dynamic learning center for our girls.

This summer, through a collaborative effort of more than 300 international volunteers, we created an interactive reading garden in a previously unused part of campus - the area between the back of the building and security wall. This new walking garden was inspired by the beloved children’s book by Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. For the Mariposas, which translates to butterflies in English, this story of a caterpillar metamorphosing into a butterfly is the perfect visualization of growth and transformation. Mariposas begin programs at age 8 and continue until they are 18. Throughout this decade, they undergo a number of changes, confront many obstacles and become leaders in their community. As the girls walk through the garden, they can see themselves evolving right alongside the very hungry caterpillar.

At the end of this summer, our Center is saying hasta pronto to nine of the original Mariposas who recently graduated from high school. When they first began programs, the Mariposa Center did not exist. After Mariposa purchased the land and dilapidated building that has become our beloved Center for Girls, these young women and their families helped to clean and renovate it. Mariposa graduate, Aritza, who will be attend United World College Costa Rica in the fall, remarks, “The Mariposa Center has been my second home, where I have developed as a person and where I came to know my second sisters. This garden for las chiquitas will be their safe place where they can reflect and express their feelings.”

As we say goodbye to the Mariposas who have found their wings, we continue to improve and beautify the Center for those that follow behind them. We send our gratitude to each one of you who make it possible for our Center to continuously transform and change into a place of inspiration, creativity and stewardship for the girls who call it home. 

With gratitude,

The girls, families, staff and volunteers at The Mariposa DR Foundation

Dear friends,

This April 22^nd, the Mariposa DR Foundation hosted an Ecological Fair to celebrate Earth Day. During the event, the newest generation of environmental activists in Cabarete, the Mariposa girls, shared with their families and the community all the different ways Mariposa goes green everyday!

The event featured a musical concert, dance recital and a recycled fashion show. The Musical Group presented original songs with lyrics that inspire us to protect our precious natural resources, and las percusionistas, our percussion group, showed off their upcycled drums, which are re-purposed water storage containers. Rosanna, a Mariposa mother whose daughter Jafreisy has been in the Musical Group for over five years, shared during the concert that “El Agua Vale Más Del Oro” is one of her favorite Mariposa songs. She said, “I love to sing this song because it is the truth! Just like the words say, water is worth more than gold. Without water, we can’t live.” 

In this same spirit of water preservation, the dance group presented a contemporary dance piece about the element of water. Mariposas from the art class proved that green fashion is in vogue with their ocean-inspired costumes and masks all made from recycled elements, such as cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls and plastic bottles caps! 

At the Mariposa Center for Girls, we are now composting all organic materials from our kitchen, as well as materials such as paper towel rolls and cardboard boxes to create rich soil for our flourishing garden. On Earth Day, guests toured the Mariposa permaculture garden and learned about composting. The Mariposas led informational sessions to show each step in the composting process so that visitors could educate themselves on composting at home. Each Mariposa family was also given a seedling plant to take home and plant in their backyard garden!

A group of the older Mariposas also led a workshop on how to use an old t-shirt to make a re-usable grocery bag, a skill which they learned from indigenous woman, Colleen Cooley of the Navajo Nation during her visit to the Mariposa Center last month. We were so inspired to see something old transform into something new! The Mariposa girls hope that their mothers will now use these t-shirt bags when they visit the grocery store or local markets to reduce their use of plastic bags.

The Mariposas may wear pink, but where their Mother Earth is concerned they say, Go Green! 

Your continued support enables the Mariposa activists to spread sustainable solutions for protecting the environment, starting right in their own backyard! Together, we are empowering the world’s most powerful force for change!

With gratitude,

The girls, families, staff and volunteers at The Mariposa DR Foundation