The International Jury of the XXII Ibero-American Quality Award has selected the educational institution “Cometas de Esperanza” Foundation in the Dominican Republic, an organization supported since its creation by the Barceló Foundation, as a finalist for the award.

A collaboration that began in 2006 with the “rescue” of the “diver children”, who earned their living by scavenging through the waste of the Rafey landfill in Santiago de los Caballeros, and who, thanks to this collaboration, were able to abandon this system of existence and embark on the path of school education and the search for a more promising future for themselves and the generations to come.
What was a dream for its founder and president, Óscar Faes, is now a reality. Today, the rubbish dump no longer exists and every year around 400 students are educated in the school’s classrooms. The school, which is considered one of the best educational centres in the whole Dominican Republic, has been recognized with several awards such as the Gold Award in the Santiago province awards (2017), the Gold Medal (2019 and 2020) as the best school at national level.
In 2018, a collaboration agreement was signed with the country’s minister of education to replicate the “Cometas de Esperanza” model and educational experience in other schools in the Dominican Republic near landfills.
The 22nd Ibero-American Quality Award will take place at the end of November in Bogotá. In the meantime, we will remain attentive to the final decision and hope that the “Cometas de Esperanza” Foundation wins the prize.