Sucre Ethique - Dominican republic : Virginia Tech grad works in poor Dominican communities

“With respect to what I have ever known, growing up in a comfortable middle-class setting in the United States, life presents very different challenges in the poorest communities of the Dominican Republic”

As a graduate student in the Urban and Regional Planning program at Virginia Tech, I participated in an International Development Studio course during the 2010 spring semester.

For the studio, my task was to pick an international development issue and write a project proposal addressing the issue. Because of my interest in the dichotomy between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, my interest in learning Spanish, and the development of a study abroad program in Punta Cana (which was eventually cancelled but will likely take place in June 2011), I decided to focus my project on issues in the Dominican Republic, with an emphasis on batey and other poor communities (batey meaning “sugarcane worker’s shantytown”).

In particular, I focused my project for the studio on the Santa Maria del Batey Foundation (SMB). SMB is a non-profit organization that supports a school and education initiatives in an area surrounded by bateys and impoverished communities near Hato Mayor in the Dominican Republic. My project (developed along with another Virginia Tech student) focused on a supplementary education initiative. While this project was well intentioned and rigorously developed, it was very difficult to create a plan for the benefit of a community of people in a distant country where life was very different than what I have experienced.

This led me to seek opportunities to study in such communities over the summer (volunteer positions were out of my reach with my limited Spanish communication skills and experience). The founders of SMB, Augusto and Carmen Casasnovas, were very helpful in providing such an opportunity to capture a glimpse of their school and life within the surrounding communities. Additionally, I was fortunate to come into contact with several other people and organizations working for similar causes throughout the Dominican Republic that were very helpful and accommodating in allowing a snapshot of their lives and work.

I spent over two months during the 2010 summer traveling around the Dominican Republic visiting these different organizations. Beginning with SMB they were : Peace Corps – Las Pajas ; Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas (SSID) – Santo Domingo ; Project Esperanza – Puerto Plata ; Yspaniola – Batey Libertad ; Caminante – Boca Chica ; and Community Connection International (CCI) - Consuelo.

The general purposes of the trip and subsequent paper I wrote, included : to provide general information to organizations working for similar causes, to foster networking between them ; to provide information for Virginia Tech students interested in international development, potentially connecting with Virginia Tech study abroad opportunities ; to provide information for anyone who may wish to become involved ; and for me, to gain a better understanding of life in poor communities in the Dominican Republic and how I may become involved (as well as furthering my Spanish communication skills).

I spent between a handful of days to a week with each organization, shadowing some of their workers, talking to community members, and asking general questions about day-to-day life and how each organization tries to address the inherent challenges within it.

Some of the common challenges, key issues, and themes I encountered throughout these communities and organizations include : The difficulty for people of Haitian descent to obtain Dominican documentation, even for those who were born in the Dominican Republic ; Dependency leading to expectancy ; Underlying social tensions between people of Haitian descent and Dominican descent ; Young adult pregnancy ; Poor access to clean drinking water, sanitation services ; Limited access to quality education ; Poor energy infrastructure ; Distinct gender roles that can limit opportunities ; Cross-pollination – learning between and within organizations ; Funding/support ; Extreme Poverty.

With respect to what I have ever known, growing up in a comfortable middle-class setting in the United States, life presents very different challenges in the poorest communities of the Dominican Republic.

Safe drinking water from the tap is virtually non-existent, the public school systems are very poorly funded and administered, power is unreliable in most places, quality health care is outside the means of most, job opportunities are very limited - with many people having no choice but to perform hard labor for very little pay. All of these together make it difficult to feed a family.

Hunger is a very common experience. Many people I met were surprised when I told them I had never once experienced hunger. Further exacerbating such problems, especially for the part of the population descending from Haiti, are the difficulties in obtaining proper Dominican (and even Haitian) documentation. This severely limits what opportunities are available.

Without proper documentation, children cannot advance beyond eighth grade and most jobs will be out of reach. While this certainly is not an exhaustive account of the challenges faced by the poorest of the Dominican Republic, they are significant nonetheless.

There have been and continue to be many well-meaning efforts from wealthier nations to provide aid to the most vulnerable. However, care must be taken so that sustainable, long-term positive changes can be realized. Aid is not a one-way relationship between the donor and recipients.

It is very important when a person or group of people depend on it to meet basic needs, and would otherwise be unable to meet such needs (aid dependence). However, if needs are always met by external people and organizations, an expectancy may develop in light of this dependence, especially if such aid does not demand any sort of participation from the recipient.

This may discourage the recipient’s desire to seek solutions to meet their needs and a reduced belief in their ability to solve problems.* *Bennett, A. (2010). A Response to Aid Dependency : Service for Aid. Denver, University of Denver.

While many donor organizations have fallen into a dependency/expectancy relationship with their recipients, I was very impressed with the thoughtful and ambitious approaches by the organizations I spent time with over the summer.

Capacity building efforts and self-empowering initiatives were displayed in various ways.

Such initiatives include : building, funding, and administering schools ; imbedding agriculture and health volunteers within communities ; developing a university scholarship fund ; facilitating convoluted documentation processes ; supporting small enterprise ; as well as many others. While some have been serving the Dominican Republic for extended periods of time (SSID, the SMB Foundation, Peace Corps, and Caminante), others are relatively new - founded by recent college graduates and running on a shoe-string budget (Yspaniola, Project Esperanza, and CCI).

Such efforts by each organization are daunting in the context of limited funding and resources. Engaging ideas and initiatives that foster reciprocal relationships in addressing important problems can lead to a very strong partnership between communities in the United States and communities in the Dominican Republic.

Connecting experiences with classroom learning can greatly enhance the educational experience of students at Virginia Tech as well as other institutions. Such opportunities to become involved through organizations listed above can be a great way to initiate constructive changes together.

Dominican Today - mardi 22 février 2011