It was the first week of September when our team arrived in San Pedro de Macorís with two vans loaded with backpacks. We had done this before — collected supplies, packed them carefully, driven hours to reach the communities we serve. But nothing quite prepares you for the moment a child receives a backpack of their own.
Sofia was eight years old and had been sharing a single pencil with her younger brother for the entire school year. Not a box of pencils. One pencil. Her mother, a seamstress who earns the equivalent of $4 a day, had no way to buy more.
“She held that backpack the way other kids hold birthday presents. Like it was the most important thing anyone had ever given her.”
That moment is why Luna Seeds of Love Foundation exists.
The Hidden Barrier to Education
In the Dominican Republic, public school is technically free — but the real cost of education runs deep. Families are expected to provide notebooks, pencils, rulers, uniforms, and sometimes even chairs. For families living on less than $5 a day, this is simply impossible.
When children show up to school without supplies, the consequences go beyond the classroom. Teachers — overwhelmed and under-resourced — often send them home. Parents, embarrassed and helpless, sometimes stop sending them at all. The cycle tightens.
Luna Seeds interrupts that cycle every September.
What Our Education Program Provides
Each year, through the generosity of our donors and volunteers from New Jersey, our Education Program delivers:
• A full backpack with notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers, and scissors
• School uniforms for children who need them
• After-school tutoring sessions during the academic year
• Teacher support resources for the three communities we serve
Since 2016, we’ve distributed supplies to more than 500 children across three communities. But the number we care most about isn’t 500. It’s one — the one child in front of us who needed to know someone believed in their future.
Sofia, One Year Later
We saw Sofia again last spring. She had been promoted to third grade and was reading above her grade level. Her teacher told us she’d become the student who helps others sharpen their pencils.
She had kept that backpack. It was worn at the straps and faded from a year of daily use. She pointed to it proudly and said, in Spanish, “This one is mine.”
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” — W.B. Yeats
We couldn’t agree more. Every backpack we hand out is a spark. Every tutoring session is a flame. What happens next — that’s up to the child. Our job is just to make sure they have what they need to begin.
❤ $35 fills one backpack and changes one child’s school year. Donate at lunaseedsoflove.org