MLB-DDA

17 February 2010 - On weekdays, more than 200 children make a short walk to Campo de Sueños (Field of Dreams) in the impoverished slum of El Tamarindo in Eastern Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  Children have arrived to the complex for the past 15 years to eat a hot lunch that the Manny Mota International Foundation serves.  For many this is the only complete meal that they eat throughout the day.

Manny and Margarita Mota formalized the foundation in 1994, after feeding the street children in Santo Domingo since the 1960s.  Each year they volunteer their time and donate their resources to improve the lives of the Dominican youth of El Tamarindo.  The Motas attend to hundreds of children, calling each one by name, teaching values, and acting as a second set of parents.  They ingrain the values of discipline, promote the importance of education, and worry about the health of the residents in El Tamarindo.  

Manny Mota represents a different generation of baseball players, a group that realized their good fortune and understood the importance of giving back to those less fortunate.  He and his family emanate the values and philosophy of Roberto Clemente, a great friend of Manny, by making a difference in this world and creating more opportunities for the communities they serve.  Their humble acts of generosity are values that the MLB Dominican Development Alliance (MLB-DDA) aims to cultivate in all baseball players.

The MLB-DDA and Save the Children República Dominicana are proud to team up with the Mota family to launch a new program that includes the installation of a computer center equipped with reading rooms and bathrooms.  Solar panels will provide the electricity for the center, overcoming the challenge of the daily blackouts that occur in the country.

In addition to computer courses, Save the Children will offer non formal education programs for at-risk youth through a program called Espacios para Crecer (Spaces to Learn).  The program intends to reduce child labor and encourage a full day of class time.  According to the United Nations Development Programe, children that attend public schools receive on average less than 2.5 hours per day of class time, creating a greater need for these programs.

The MLB-DDA is honored to support Manny and Margarita Mota with their social work in El Tamarindo, and believes that this partnership is a perfect example for other players to follow.