DOMINICAN REPUBLIC- SANTO DOMINGO
« Rehabilitation of community life for families of La Lata hit by hurricane George (1998): houses, a school and community centres »

Location: Santo-Domingo, Dominican Republic
Local Association: AIC-Dominican Republic and the Daughters of Charity
Persons in charge of the project: Cruz Maria de León and Sister Servia García

Objectives of the project:
· General: Providing families with quality housing, offering them security and access to basic services
· Specific:
- Building 180 quality houses for families affected by Hurricane George in the neighborhood of La Lata (Santo-Domingo)
- Favoring better health and global well-being
- Promoting participation of beneficiary families
- Favoring personal and family intimacy
- Rehabilitating and improving the environment of the shores of Ozama river

Activities:
Organization of the Community
- Promote and support the exercise of a participative management to allow members of the community to be aware and responsible of their own development
- Guide the members of the community in order to facilitate their knowledge about the norms of conviviality, cleanness and protection of common premises
- Inform about civil, social and political citizen rights
Personal and community promotion
- Motivate illiterate adults to participate in literacy and education projects offered by public and private institutions
- Offer technical and vocational training
- Give orientation to parents for them to create a family atmosphere favorable to dialogue, sound relationships and education to values
- Inform women about their rights, the laws that protect them from any form of violence either physical, verbal or psychological
- Inform the community so that it may be in a good global health condition
- Strengthen national identity and popular culture valorization
- Favor community access to the different public institutions’ poverty alleviation programs, to improve population quality of life
Evangelization
- Favoring Christian training of beneficiaries

Project history
On September 22, 1998, hurricane George devastated the country, leaving behind him numerous victims and destruction in different areas. Thousand of people had to flee from strong winds and floods and look for refuge somewhere else. The Daughters of Charity tried to support the victims who were receiving no help at all, neither from the government, nor from parishes or other groups. Worried by the situation, they organized two census campaigns to determine how many families were affected and which were the different problems affecting them. This led to the idea of re-settling people from that sector of La Lata, and to build safe and quality housing for them.

Beneficiaries: 180 families
Partnership: Daughters of Charity, Habitat for Humanity

Budget requested: 6250 Euros