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El Cercado Community Development
Latin America & the Caribbean
El Cercado Community Development
Project Coordinator:
Joanne Peterson
Project Overview:
El Cercado Community Development (El Cercado, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC) improves the quality of life for people in El Cercado and the surrounding communities by training health promoters, promoting education, improving agricultural initiatives, and supporting community and faith based organizing initiatives. The project is coordinated by Joanne Peterson, an American woman who has been living and working in the Dominican Republic for over twenty years. Joanne is excited about recent initiatives started by the Dominican people (read below for more details), and says “The most remarkable change has occurred in the people, the new leaders that are stepping forth to take responsibility for the future of their communities. A new day is dawning with grassroots empowerment, and the people are feeling their worth and dignity."
Recent Accomplishments:
50 health promoters trained and graduated in a two year formation program
200 malnourished children were served in a monthly food, milk, medicine supplement program
Surgery for more than 50 patients
Monthly training of 60 legal rights workers
Literacy classes in 17 villages involving 153 students
Construction of 83 outside family latrines
Collaboration in the construction of 300 family houses
Construction of one community aqueduct for 350 families
Installation of 5 new community nurseries involving 123 farm families
Number of People Directly Served by Project:
7000
Number of People Indirectly Served by Project:
40000
Goals for 2010:
With the building of a Formation and Retreat Center, the project hopes to offer more training courses for leadership development
Establish Christian base communities that have a more comprehensive plan for community development
Change in the traditional crops of beans and corn and increased production of organic fruit trees collective marketed
Increase awareness of preventative health practices through cleaner water, improved hygiene and latrines, vaccinations, and better diets
Train more health workers
IPM Funding Goal for 2010:
$3,000
Community Impact:
"Clara is a grandmother who does not exist according to the government. Because her father never registered her as a live birth, and the fact that she was born in the countryside at home, Clara is not a legal Dominican citizen. Her father and mother died and cannot register her. As a result, Clara has not been able to legally register her daughters, and her daughters therefore have not legally declared their children either. Without a birth certificate, Clara and her daughters cannot obtain an identity card, go to school after 4th grade, qualify for public health insurance, vote in elections, nor qualify for any public assistance or aid of any kind, all because Clara was never registered at birth. Recently, after many trials and complications, a volunteer legal human rights worker trained by lawyers in a two year formation program helped Clara to get her birth certificate, and later, her ID card. Now Clara will register her daughters and sons, and they in turn will register their children after they get their ID cards. Finally, the circle will be broken."
How your donation may be put to use:
$250 provides administrative support for one month for organizing projects which benefit more than 7000 people each year