Hogar del Niño is a comprehensive education center with the capacity to provide free education, food, medical and dental care daily to more than 1,500 students, ranging from newborn to 18 years of age.

One of our main values ​​is respect and love for diversity, for which we have an integration program for children and young people with different abilities, of which 100 deaf students are currently part. Our educational model focuses on multidisciplinary balance, so that science is given equal attention and importance, as well as the various forms of artistic expression. Hogar del Niño is considered the only center of its kind in the Dominican Republic and Latin America, due to the wide range of services it offers.

At Hogar del Niño, children and youth receive love and opportunities for personal growth. We firmly believe that all people have the potential to do great things, especially when they are shown that someone trusts and believes in them.

Our Infant Room is one of the most significant services that are offered by Hogar del Niño. It is a centre dedicated to implement Early Childhood Development (ECD). The purpose of this kind of method of child-care is based on the fact that infants benefit significantly from being stimulated by their care-givers and the environments in which they spend most time. Our Infants, sometime as young as 14 days old to 2 year old toddlers, receive the best care possible, while they are cognitively and intellectually stimulated, which prepares them for the next stages of their lives.

It is of utmost relevance to our organization to provide our children the attention, care and education/stimulation needed to develop to their full potential and thus the infant room is designed to offer a structured daily plan as part of our Early Childhood Development (ECD) initiative. The purpose of this schedule is to allow our trained staff of teachers, psychologists and care-givers to observe their progress according to the Denver Method indicators of development.

The Denver Method indicators are applied rather as a preventive measure than a course of treatment; it allows us to detect early developmental challenges in our children in order for us to take necessary action if needed. ECD is supported by organizations such UNICEF and BID as a step to a better quality of life.

The Hogar del Niño School offers a formal educational curriculum that begins from the Infant Room and runs through Pre-school, Primary, High School and the School for our hearing impaired students, which prepares them to integrate into classes with their hearing peers from the 7th grade onwards. The school also offers an after-school curriculum through the Pavilion of Liberal Arts and Sustainability ‘Zona Verde’, where students express themselves through the arts and learn about responsible consumption through recycling and gardening classes.

In December 2013 we completed our amplification process and as a result, we now have 44 classrooms:

Pre-school classrooms:

Teacher / student ratio:

In March 2015, Patronato Benéfico Oriental collaborated along DREAM Project to adapt one of our classrooms to the requirements of the Montessori Method of learning as part of a pilot project that would provide us with the adequate experience to later on adapt our entire pre-school to the Montessori standards.

Within a month, our team began to witness how our students were benefited by this method as follows:

• The children learn to carry out everyday chores, such as washing up and mopping the floor. These kinds of activities promote a sense of practicality and responsibility in these children from a very early age.
• The Montessori Method motivates the students to take part in the activities they are interested in during the sessions, which makes attending school and learning a fun part of their day.
• The children gain a sense of independence that is bound to make them productive members of society.
• They are motivated to celebrate their peers’ accomplishments as if these achievements were their own. This practice promotes important human values such as, empathy, care and positivity.
• This method has incentivized the children to work in teams according to their interests. This ensures that they will thrive in environments where teamwork is necessary.   

Following the progress we have witnessed since the implementation of the pilot program, it has become our goal, to provide the same development opportunities to the entire pre-school population of Hogar del Niño. It is our understanding that the Montessori experience is not supposed to be a privilege for a few students but an opportunity that all of our age-applicable children should benefit from.  As part of this initiative we have decided to expand the project by adding three more classrooms and integrating the Montessori teaching method to a school program in which children take part in activities in the areas of physical education, culture and art.

Integration Program for people with Different Abilities

In 2015, our Hogar del Niño team consolidated the Integration Program for children with Different Abilities. Our intention was to employ the ‘School for the Deaf’ as a platform which provides Deaf children with the necessary tools so that they may thrive in hearing environments.

• Since January 2013 we have three new classrooms for 5th, 6th and a computer lab dedicated to teaching children with different abilities.
• During the last school year we added a second classroom to the Preschool level to cover demand.
• We currently have 10 teachers qualified in Sign Language.
• From the fourth grade on, our Deaf students attend Math, Spanish, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences classes weekly; these classes are taught in the Computing room as a measure of learning through the use of diverse technological resources.
• We currently teach sign language as a third language to our students so that we can improve general communication between hearing and Deaf students.
•  All students receive Information Technology classes starting from the First grade.
• Since the inclusion program was implemented the desertion rate is 0%.

Our library is an example of education and community empowerment working hand in hand.

With over 10,000 books in diverse languages, including Braille, covering a wide range of topics, our students are encouraged to read during school hours, through 45 minutes weekly sessions. Since its opening in 2008, we have also been able to motivate the Hogar del Niño students to take interest in reading, allowing them to take out books.

Health Care

Our resident Doctor, Dr. Sención Canario, is a pediatrician specialised in Perinatology. She attends an estimate of 55 students daily in the Hogar del Niño’s medical office, and as part of our Community Outreach program, we also serve children from the Hogar’s surrounding areas and all medical attention and medicine we supply are free of charge. Medical services include providing Folic Acid to children suffering from* Sickle Cell Anemia, Vaccination, preventive care and medical treatment as needed.

Dental Care

Dental Care has been one of our Outreach Program services since 1998. It began as a medical operation to attend children from surrounding areas of La Romana, who could not otherwise afford dental care. In 2002 it was finally established as an all year round service. Since 2006, thanks to Dr. Bobby McBride’s donation, we are able to offer our services to our students and children from all over La Romana through Hogar del Niño’s own Dental Care office.

We currently have a staff of 5 Dental Care professionals, who apart from tending to the needs of our students through the Dental Care office also tend to the surrounding Bateyes, in our Dental Mobile Unit. Some of our services include:

Our Cultural Pavilion provides our students with the perfect space to practice sports such as Volleyball, Basketball, Football and Athletics. This is also a space used for extracurricular and official activities. The most recent activity held in the pavilion was the 2015 Hogar del Niño Talent Show.

Download our form and Adopt a Crib

This program is currently our major source of income at Hogar del Niño and it has contributed enormously in the process of developing Hogar into the complete and diverse education and care centre it is today.