Suggested reading:

In the New Testament Jesus says the poor you will always have with you. Given the economy of his time and that of ours, those words are true, but need they continue to be? Muhammad Yunus in his book, Creating a World Without Poverty, demonstrates a way through.
Yunus speaks not just from theory, but theory put into actions that prove his theory. Yunus includes data and statistics to support his theory for those who need them.
Creating a World Without Poverty in paperback for ten dollars and change.

As some of you know my favorite book about Jesus is not the one written by Himself, Benedict XVI, but by Jose Antonio Pagola. Pagola's book has yet to be published in English, but has gone through eight publications in less than 12 months. I don’t know why it has yet to appear in English.

But in the meanwhile I would recommend, What Jesus Meant, by Garry Wills . This book is also in paperback. Wills' text is in the spirit of my favorite book about Jesus, though not as in depth.
If it wets your appetite for more accurate knowledge about Jesus follow up with The First Paul by Marcus J.Borg and John Dominic Crossan.

Missionaries from St. Alphonsus Parish

We were pleased to host some visitors recently. Eleven people, 5 adults and 6 high schoolers, traveled from St. Alphonsus Parish in Auburn, New York to work as missionaries to the Project in Hato Nuevo from March 11th to the 21st.

This is a photo of our guests' arrival at the local airport on March 11.They spent part of their visit painting new classrooms in the elementary school.
Group organizer Kim Gunnip doing some painting.
The new classrooms the group worked on will be completed in time for the next school year.

The group also spent a good deal of time getting to know the children, their families and the poverty of the people of Hato Nuevo.
Sunday night we went to a parish in Ceuta to participate in an evening of local folk music and dance.

One afternoon Sr. Kathleen and a group of Hato Nuevo school children entertained the missionaries with songs.

The group departed on March 21. We so enjoyed hosting our guests during their stay with us. Their hard work in the school and the time they spent sharing stories, songs, and smiles with the children and local families were much appreciated. Their faith, time shared, and hard work will have a lasting impact on our efforts to help the children and families of Hato Nuevo!

Hearing confession

This is the front cover of the booklet for the March liturgies and Pastoral Plan Focus. It went out to thousands of Catholics in the DR. It was taken when I was hearing a young priest's confession during this past November priests’ retreat. On the Friday of the retreat week we heard each other’s confessions. To the question some might ask…Yes, I did.

Awards received

The school in Don Juan was recognized in 2008 as one of the best schools in all of Latin America and Caribbean with also an honorary doctorate to Sr.Veronica Nunez

Hato Nuevo, Daycare Center and Schools

The sisters working in Hato Nuevo , but Sr.Petronia now has returned to the Congo

Completion of the second floor for future elementary school

School in Don Juan

Latest addition to the school,building 7th and 8th grade classrooms

El Portal de Belen Daycare Center in Monte Plata,DR

Children's Christmas Party Dec. 2008

Fr.Ron's involvement

In 2002 as I was preparing to retire from the active ministry of the Diocese of Rochester,NY, I set up a non-profit ,tax-deductible foundation which as its incorporation papers state-This foundation was formed for the purpose of raising funds and providing contributions, grants and other funding to support the care, well-being and Catholic development of needy children in the Dominican Republic which includes nutritional as well as educational development.

I named the foundation, El Portal de Belen Foundation after the daycare center of said name in Monta Plata in the DR where now the foundation exercises an advisory capacity.

The foundation also supports the Sisters of the congregation , Hijas de Nuestra Senora de Misericordia working in the parish of Don Juan in the DR with $500 a month to buy food , gas electric etc..

The Pde B Foundation secured a grant of $90,000 to complete school for children with learning disabilities there.

At present there are 340 children soon to grow to 550 in two yrs as each year they are adding a grade to go to the full complement of 8 besides the preschool ages 3-5 and kindergarden.

The school as well as the Daycare center in Monte Plata and the Daycare and after school program in Hato Nuevo provide breakfast, milk and bread ,lunch , rice , protein vegetables and snack in the afternoon ,milk bread or cake.

Hato Nuevo is our newest project which consists of a daycare center and after school program ( children not in school or have problems learning) for very poor Dominican. as well as undocumented Haitian children.

Next fall the sisters there will open an elementary school for these children.They are Claretians sisters, one from Mexico, one from Venezuela and one from Argentina.

The cost of milk is 44 pesos a liter , about $1.30.

for people with average daily income of a dollar a day per person milk is not that common in the average family in th DR.

The PdeB is helped the sisters in Don Juan buy property for an adult training center in Don Juan, now completed and operating.

Donated $10,000 to P.Lorenzo Vargas to buy property for a daycare center and school for poor children in the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary ,Ceuta , barrio outside of Santo Domingo.

The sisters in Don Juan run and carry out the ministry in the parish of San Juan Bautista, 12,000 people and 17 communities.

These wonderful dedicated women are from Argentina It is a testament to the quality of their work and who they are as women dedicated to God that there is now two young women in Argentina from the parish studying to become sisters, two in four years,percentage wise better than most dioceses in the United States.

Two priest from the parish have recently been ordained from this parish.

57% of the people in the DR are without jobs or adequate income to support themselves and their children.They are literally scratching out a meager livelihood. 16-25% can’t read or write. Why education and nutrition is so important.

Average family needs more $400 a month to live (2 parents and 4 children) but earn on average $143 amonth, a dollar per day per person.

The bulk of human kind is made up of poor persons-those whose lives are seriously threatened at all levels.You and I , we of the affluent societies are the exception not the norm.

Origin of projects

Since 1998,
the welfare of more than 600 children in the Dominican Republican has rested on the charitable instincts of three moderate sized Catholic parishes in upstate New York and Colorado.
The link between these people has been Reverend Ronald Gaesser, a Roman Catholic priest drawn to serve these children and their families in his retirement. Father Gaesser is a remarkable man, but he is only a man, and so worries about these children after he is gone.
The children are students at one day care facilities in Monte Plata ,El Portal de Belen and school for children , Sr.Maria Josefa Rossello
With learning difficulties, one of the poorest provinces of the Dominican Republic is in Don Juan .
As well as a new daycare center and after school program in Hato Nuevo.An area rife with drugs and prostitution because of their extreme poverty.
Drawn from families locked in direst poverty, or from dysfunctional or simply nonfunctional families, these children are provided with daycare, early education, nutrition, and medical assistance in a clinic, while their parents work or attend job training. For nearly all, the school meal sustains them throughout their difficult day.
The Sisters Teresa,Iris ,and Nilda founded daycare center, El Portal de Balen with $595 and borrowed space. Father Gaesser, then serving as a parish priest in Ithaca, NY, connected the daycare with his parishioners; their support enabled them to build and operate a permanent facility for 128 children. Father Gaesser has since added two more parishes in the Auburn and one in Colorado to this support network. These donations support operation of the new Don Juan School for 340 children with disabilities, as well as a convent for the teaching staff of three sisters. One more similar school is planned to open this coming fall in the facility in Hato Nuevo.
The El Portal de Belen Foundation was formed in Ithaca to direct these donations to this effort.
The generosity of these upstate New Yorkers and Colorado has fully funded the operating and capital expenses for the past nine years, and enabled the aggregation of a $300,000 endowment. Nearly all of the administrative expenses of the Foundation are donated, allowing virtually all of these donations to directly support the children in these daycare centers and schools. Now, the Foundation seeks to expand their endowment to $1 million to provide a permanent source of operating and capital funds, and to ensure the future of this remarkable effort to provide the poorest of the poor with hope, and a future.