Intercambio Hispaniola

Meeting with M.U.D.H.A.

norahughes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:46:25 +0000

Solange Pierre speaking with our class

Our class meeting with women from M.U.D.H.A.

An Afternoon in the Batey

mollybird89 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 02:31:13 +0000

This past Friday, the 5^th of February, our class had the opportunity to visit a school in a batey. A batey is generally created around an ingenio, or sugar plantation. The majority of these community members tend to be of Haitian decent many of whom are denied citizenship to the Dominican Republic and are brought over solely to work at these plantations. Bateys are known for being the most impoverished areas of the country and because many of their inhabits don’t have documents, they are a part of a growing invisible population. When our class asked MUDHA what we could do to help Haiti their first response was to donate to this particular school and we quickly set up a date to visit. As you can see from the pictures this community is a perfect example of the poverty that exists in the bateys, the roads are unpaved, trash lines every street, shoes hang from wires that rarely produce electricity. Like most bateys the sugar mill has been shut down because it is unprofitable to produce sugar leaving many people without a job. Those same people also don’t have identification papers and are unable to leave the bateys. When we got to the school we quickly integrated ourselves playing games and eventually wound up in a circle where daring individuals entered into the center to sing songs. One of the songs that affected me the most was two girls who sang “no nos llaman extranjeros….” or “Don’t call us foreigners..” The song portrayed the feelings of citizens who have no citizenship in Haiti or the Dominican Republic, despite the fact that they share the same history and their cultures are interconnected. We brought snacks, as many times the children go unfed. Usually the school provides a meal for their students however lately they haven’t had the funding so often the students will go without eating all day this obviously effects their concentration. As a class we plan on continuing fundraising for the school when we return to Bellingham so be on the lookout for some of our upcoming events! It is our hope that we can provide a long standing connection between Western Washington University and this particular school, maybe even sending a TESOL student down to teach.

Meeting with Solange Pierre (MUDHA)

danyarm — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 04:04:03 +0000

Solange Pierre, founder of MUDHA, and two representatives, gave a speech to our class yesterday about their organization and the situation in Haiti after the earthquake. MUDHA is a non-governmental organization in the Dominican Republic that works for the rights of Haitian women and Dominicans of Haitian descent. The discussion was extremely inspiring and informative, and the following is my reaction to the presentation:

Solange had an amazing presence about her, as soon as she walked into the room, all eyes followed her and her warm smile to the table. She sat down, apologized for being late, and sat quietly, gathering her thoughts before sharing with us her story. She looked tired and sorrowful yet she maintained a calm and collected presence. Solange arrived in Santo Domingo one day prior in order to reload their vehicle with food and medical supplies only to depart again for Haiti the following day. There was a part of me that felt honored that she took the time to talk to us despite her chaotic schedule in the midst of such a tragedy, but also a part of me that felt guilty as she had so many more important things to do regarding her work with Haiti. Knowing that Solange had been working with MUDHA and the Dominican-Haitian population for more than 25 years, and herself being of Haitian-descent, I can only imagine the pain and grief she is going through now. Never the less, Solange came to speak to our class and share her experiences and wisdom with us, and I wish I could express to her the admiration and respect I have for her.

Along with her personal story, which I look forward to reading in her autobiography (she is in the midst of writing it right now), Solange and her co-workers described the current situation for Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian-descent here in the Dominican Republic. They explained that this marginalized population generally does not have the same rights as many Dominicans due to their lack of identification and birth certificates. Many Haitians immigrate to the Dominican Republic in search of a better life and employment opportunities. When crossing the border, many are either stripped of their Haitian identification, or given temporary identification cards, which will have to be renewed several months later. Often times, there are complications renewing their IDs, which in turn, strips them of their rights as citizens of any state. In this case, they are neither Dominican nor Haitian according to national laws; they are in a sense, “stateless”. According to Solange Pierre, about 22% of the population in the Dominican Republic is undocumented, and the vast majority of them are of Haitian-descent. The repercussions of this “statelessness” are far-reaching; they do not have access to education, health care or worker’s rights, and they are vulnerable to deportation. Although this population doesn’t have even the basic human rights, they are the backbone of the Dominican economy and work in the sugar plantations and do the majority of the construction in the country. MUDHA works with this vulnerable population, mainly focusing on women and children who bare the brunt of the hardships of this extreme poverty. MUDHA has worked in many Bateyes (poor settlements of sugar-cane cutters, generally of Haitians, or Dominicans of Haitian descent), creating schools, education programs for children, empowerment workshops for women, women’s artisan cooperatives, sexual health programs and legal advice for human rights violations. MUDHA seems to be a holistic organization that focuses on all the aspects needed for community development and social change: economics, politics, social relations, gender equality, education, health services, youth empowerment, and spiritual recognition.

After the discussion, our class was charged, inspired and eager to contribute our time and resources. Sensing our eagerness to contribute to their organization, Solange told us about a small school in a batey (sugar plantation community) outside of Santo Domingo, with mostly children of Haitian descent, as a way to help with MUDHA’s efforts. Because of MUDHA’s close involvement in relief work for Haiti, their time and resources are stretched thin, and they are not able to attend to other projects such as la escuelita at the moment. It is clear that the affects of this earthquake are far-reaching, and have deeply affected many Dominicans of Haitian descent as well.

Tomorrow we will visit the school and meet with MUDHA to concretize our involvement in their projects. We are excited about working with such an influential and effective organization, and look forward to spending time with the kids at la escuelita.

For more information on MUDHA, visit: http://kiskeya-alternative.org/mudha/ (Spanish) or http://www.comminit.com/en/node/122335/348 (English- translation of main page only).

Our Fearless Leader

adelaidem — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 21:12:33 +0000

aka one of the most dangerous professors in the USA

Check the Blog-roll

sonjairene — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 17:55:11 +0000

Check out the blog-roll for links to other interesting articles, blogs, and websites relating to news and information about what’s happening on the island right now.

We will also post links to organizations that we are in support of and that could use more donations.

Playa Juan Dolio

Kelsey Beckmeyer — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 04:23:00 +0000

Haiti relief work with GTZ (German non-profit organization)

danyarm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:24:42 +0000

Packaging food for Haitians

danyarm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:20:13 +0000

Response to student volunteer project

ariel505 — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:09:19 +0000

It was difficult for our group to be so close to Haiti, to be seeing every day images of the earthquake, but to be unable to do anything. I felt like there were probably signs of the earthquake everywhere I looked, but that I wasn’t attuned enough to this place to see them. Our collective restlessness and helplessness was discussed at length in one of our first class meetings. We came to the conclusion that even if we could have gone to Haiti, we didn’t have any skills to justify the resources that we would use by being there. What we could do was to find an organization that was operating out of Santo Domingo and offer our time. Through our Spanish school we made a connection with a German non-profit organization called GTZ. On Friday the 29^th, a little over half of our group spent the day in a warehouse down by the docks packing boxes that were going to be sent to Haiti.

Apart from the fourteen of us, GTZ had about twenty Dominican employees. We were dropped off at the warehouse, presented with day-glo vests, and put to work. The work itself was not hard, but it was still kind of an unexpected change from our pretty leisurely routine. It was also interesting to be volunteering across the table from people who were doing to same work, except that they were being paid. None of the people that I talked to had been working there for more than a couple of weeks. I don’t know what they did before the earthquake or what they will do when the relief effort has subsided, but for the time being they are also benefiting from the sudden inflow of money into Hispaniola. As far as I could gather, the food that we were packing had been paid for by the German government, and bought from Dominican companies. Each box contained flour, rice, beans, oil, sugar: enough to feed a family for a week. Over the course of the day, we packed 5,520 boxes. They were shipped out that evening. By Saturday morning, 5,520 families would have enough to eat for a week.

I still have a lot of questions about our experience that I don’t know how to get answered. Not the least of which is, where exactly are these boxes headed? What does ‘family’ even mean in Haiti right now? How many orphans are there in the country without the means to claim this food? I try to imagine a similar warehouse to the one we worked in, full of boxes, full of food and full of desperation, hunger and confusion. I wonder who will be in charge of distributing it once it crosses the border. Will they be German, as well? I would also like to know more about the organization, GTZ. What do they do when there isn’t an earthquake in Haiti? Who actually benefits from the various financial transactions involved? From what I have heard and read about the nature of big businesses in the Dominican Republic, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this German money went into the pockets of other foreign investors. Are there no Haitian farms or companies that could provide at least some of the emergency relief to the capital and thus benefit from the relief money in the same way that Dominican companies are?

Driving along el Malecon (coastal highway near Santo Domingo)

danyarm — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 05:06:08 +0000