How Vias RD Helps Dominican Republic Kids Stay in School Through Baseball

In the Dominican Republic, keeping kids in school is one of the most important and most difficult challenges facing families and communities. Economic pressure, limited resources, and the pull of the baseball pipeline all work against it. At Vias RD, we use baseball to work with those forces instead of against them — turning the game kids love into the reason they stay enrolled.

Why Kids Leave School in the Dominican Republic

The reasons are practical and compounding. School uniform costs can exceed a week's worth of groceries. Transportation is unreliable in rural communities. Economic pressure pushes kids toward work or full-time baseball training instead of classrooms. And for boys especially, the buscón system offers an alternative that looks like opportunity: train full-time, skip school, chase the dream.

According to UNICEF Dominican Republic, roughly 80% of Dominican children who enroll in first grade never reach ninth grade. The Dominican Ministry of Education has identified rural youth retention as one of the country's most pressing structural challenges. In Barahona, where Vias RD operates, the numbers are worse than the national average.

How Vias RD Uses Baseball to Keep Kids Enrolled

The model is simple and non-negotiable. To play with Los Piratas del Sur, every player must be enrolled in school, maintain at least a 70% grade average, and sign a written commitment letter with their family. Drop below that threshold and you lose access to the program — not permanently, but until grades recover.

Baseball is the incentive. Education is the price of admission. And because these kids love baseball more than almost anything else, the incentive works.

What Accountability Actually Looks Like

Bernarda Acosta, our General Manager, has lived in Barahona for decades. She monitors school attendance and grades directly with families and schools. She knows these kids in a way no outside organization could manufacture. When a player's grades slip, Bernarda knows before it shows up in data — and she acts.

Coach Ulises Batista reinforces this on the field. Practice happens after school, not instead of it. Games are on Saturday mornings. The schedule is built around the academic calendar, not the other way around.

The Results

Our graduation rate is 100%. Our school enrollment rate is 100%. In a country where 80% of children never reach ninth grade, every Vias RD student-athlete is enrolled and on track. Julio Zenón graduated high school in 2026 — the first of our players to do so. He's now heading to college. His younger teammate Aran Ramirez listed Julio as his tutor. That's what the model looks like when it works.

See our full impact, read more stories, or donate today to help keep more kids in school.