40 Years of Christian Education in the Dominican Republic

It was 1981 in the Dominican Republic. A rooster was crowing, the sun was climbing in the sky, and children were running to a makeshift classroom under the mango tree growing just outside of Iglesia Cristiana Reformada’s building in Batey Bienvenido. It was their first day of classes. For many students, it was their first-ever day at school.

Local pastors had noticed a need for schools in their communities, and Resonate Global Mission (then Christian Reformed World Missions) eagerly stepped in to partner with local congregations to help form Christian Reformed Schools in the Dominican Republic (COCREF). What started as one small group meeting in a church has grown into a network of 20 schools with 450 staff members providing a Christ-centered education to 5,300 students.

“Resonate has partnered with these schools from the beginning,” Resonate missionary Steve Brauning said.

Resonate provided 100 percent of the funding for the schools at the beginning, Brauning said, but from the start the goal was to move toward a vast support network for health and sustainability.

“No mission work is sustainable or healthy long term if it is supported from the outside in a disproportionate amount–no church, no school, nothing really is,” Brauning said. “An unhealthy dependency is created with too much outside support, because there will be outside control that does not sufficiently recognize local leadership.”

But local churches in the Dominican Republic led COCREF from its beginning, and Resonate walked alongside them in support. Local pastors dreamed of schools and worked to make these schools a reality. They offered space in their church buildings, and people in the community stepped up to teach. In the very first classroom, Resonate missionary Gladys Brinks taught alongside a woman from Iglesia Cristiana Reformada de Batey Bienvenido.

Families took ownership of the schools as well. One of the first steps in creating long-term sustainability, Brauning said, was to charge tuition—even a small amount. 

“This was done proportionally depending on the community, some members of which could pay a bit more, and others less. A few schools have never charged tuition because of the communities they are in,” Brauning said.

It didn’t take long for COCREF to grow. Just a few months after the first school opened, a second opened in Iglesia Cristiana Reformada de Cristo Rey’s building. In another eight months, five more schools opened. 

Resonate worked with COCREF to form more partnerships with more organizations for funding and grants, including EduDeo in Canada, Sinergia FLT in the Dominican Republic, and the local Dominican Ministry of Education, which pays many of the teachers’ salaries. 

“There are multiple sources, making it more sustainable,” Brauning said. “If any one of them reduces, there are still others to carry on.”

Today, Resonate provides only about 15 percent of COCREF’s operational budget through Sinergia FLT. This funds institutional development training and support, which helps the schools improve their efficiency and structures. Although Resonate’s contribution is small, Brauning said, it is “a consistent support for the operations and the ongoing sustainability of the schools.” Within the past few years, support of COCREF through Resonate has been critical for helping to maintain the schools’ ability to continue teaching virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“God is working through COCREF schools as they provide quality education in places where there are few or even no other options,” Brauning said. “This gives the students, their families, and the communities opportunities for a better life—a bit of shalom in those places.”

Guillermo Yan has worked with COCREF almost since its founding. His younger sister taught in one of its first schools, he said, and Yan became a teacher himself in his early twenties. At the time, he didn’t have a teaching certificate, but he continued his university studies to grow as an educator. He worked with first and second graders and saw firsthand the difference COCREF was making.

“Teaching has been amazing,” he said. “We’ve seen many changes in students’ lives.”

He says he has seen God working through COCREF schools not only to educate and disciple students, providing them with opportunities for a bright future, but also to help entire communities change. 

Yan said that the student behavior where he taught at first was difficult—even violent at times. Taxi motorcycles wouldn’t drive to the community after sunset because they thought it was too dangerous, and there were a lot of break-ins and theft in the area. But that has changed. Today the community is safe. In a country where most windows and doors are covered with iron bars to prevent break-ins, the school was able to install a brand-new glass door without bars. 

Today Yan works as the director of leadership development for COCREF through Sinergia FLT, providing teachers and principals with support and opportunities for growth. He appreciates Resonate’s partnership over the years, he said, and is thankful that the partnership makes it possible to provide quality Christian education to communities that cannot otherwise afford it.

“I am excited that COCREF has a future,” Yan said. “We know that even when we pass away, COCREF will be working in and serving the community. Christian education will continue for many years. We are growing and becoming stronger.”