Project Launch:

Batey Cachena is a community where sports are a way of life. Located just 20 kilometers north of San Pedro de Macoris, a city famous for producing Major League shortstops, the people of Cachena love baseball and sports in general. Cachena is a small agricultural community of less than 300 people located amid the sugar cane fields of the eastern Dominican Republic. The young men from Cachena who have had the good fortune to play baseball in the U.S. are role models for the community and have helped spark a desire for local youth to participate in sports and athletic activities. While sports in Cachena are popular, they are also male-dominated. Until recently, females had little to no opportunities to play organized sports. Recently, a group of determined teenage girls took the initiative to dig two long poles into the ground, string a piece of orange snow fence normally used to deter goats from eating trees across the poles, and now use this improvised apparatus to play volleyball. This inspired the local Peace Corps Volunteer to use volleyball as a means to inspire young girls to be active, be healthy and have fun. A grant from World Connect’s Kids to Kids Program established a girls' volleyball team that travels to other parts of the region to play against other Peace Corp Volunteers’ teams and participate in tournaments. The new volleyball players are also giving back to the community by giving instructional camps to younger girls focusing on volleyball skills, sportsmanship and women’s health.