curious

Have you BEEN to the DR?

Not only do they need aid, alot of dominicans have made a living out of handouts and sitting around complaining that "Las cosas estan mala" and that others should just give them something out of a matter of course.
The trickle-down theory is not catching on in the barrios, and for some reason teen pregnancy, tigerismo and corruption remain the scourges that they are. It is always the same.

plane after plane after plane unload tourists onto these third world countries to enjoy their beaches,weather..billions are spent..and none of it trickles down..most of it taken out of the country..crooked politicians..which leaves the average dominican literally living in poverty...

Paddy,

paddy said:

plane after plane after plane unload tourists onto these third world countries to enjoy their beaches,weather..billions are spent..and none of it trickles down..most of it taken out of the country..crooked politicians..which leaves the average dominican literally living in poverty...

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Please roam around our website.

http://fiesta.webcentre.ca/

We are trying to make a small difference, one tourist at a time!!

Gregg

12 Billon Dollars

paddy said:

plane after plane after plane unload tourists onto these third world countries to enjoy their beaches,weather..billions are spent..and none of it trickles down..most of it taken out of the country..crooked politicians..which leaves the average dominican literally living in poverty...

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is sent here every year by family in other countries(read US), if thats not help, i don't know what is.

It depends how you define 'aid organisations' and 'charities'. In terms of big international names there aren't that many, because Latin America and the Caribbean is not a priority area compared to Africa, the former Eastern bloc countries and now especially, south east Asia.

The very big ones like the United Nations and several others might have regional offices here because Santo Domingo is a relatively convenient base in terms of infrastructure (by Caribbean standards, especially compared with Haiti) communications facilities and ease of travel. It's also a pleasant and reasonably safe place for employees and their families to live, unlike Haiti or Jamaica, for example, which are much more difficult to recruit for.

In many, but not all cases, the actual work they support in the DR may be relatively small, with much more resources going to Haiti.

I'd say that for a country of its size, with the human development indicators it has, the DR has just about the number of such organisations one would expect.

MaineGirl said:

A recent discussion with my missions pastor has got me thinking.

Why does the DR have such a high concentration of aid organizations and charities?

What do you guys think?

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The area's poverty and geography is a reason for the "high concentration". The poverty is an obvious draw for organizations. The island's close proximity to North America makes the logistics of the transport of personnel and materials relatively inexpensive for cash conscious groups.

Regards,
PJT

If you are referring to the NGO's then it is beacause nearly every senator and lawmaker owns one that they assign its budget themselves from the senate.

let's not forget the types of "charitable
organizations" that are not so on the up and
up..that use these poor countries as a "cash
cow"..so make sure that before you do give..that
it is going to people that really need it. quick
story: many years ago,when alcapulco,mexico was a
hot spot..the streets were filled with children
selling chiclets on the streets to
tourists...late one nite my friends and i were
watching as a slow moving limo..with the door
open cruised along the main avenue..and the
children were diving in to this car as it went up
the street.
so from that day on..i realized that there are
people out there who will use children to tug at
your "heart strings" to get at your "purse
strings"..so beware of slow moving limos...

MaineGirl said:

Thanks for responses so far, everyone.

To answer Berzin's question, I've been to the DR 5 times, 3 times on mission for a charitable organization.

I know (at least I think I know) the answer to my own question, I am just curious as to other people's takes on the matter.

You know, for the years I served on the missions board, the DR was always wildly more popular than Siberia....

Anyway, there is a chance that a base will be set up in the DR (by my old church in VA) to train and do outreach further afield in the region. It is a nice outpost in the mission-field sense.

Lately I have had the feeling that direct aid in response to natural disasters (food, shelter) is excellent. But supplemental aid that is not directly related to education and healthcare make me a little uneasy. I have heard tell of Caddies and Land Rovers driven around by pastors....

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Hay de todo. Unfortunately the corrupt ones reflect badly on the good ones. I have seen things that would make your hair curl, but for every bad one there are scores of good, low-key long term programmes that empower the communities and do not perpetuate dependence.

One of the worst, or at least more blatant cases of bad practice I came across involved a priest. The campesino group had received a pick-up truck as part of a para-veterinary outreach programme (vets training campesinos in remote communities in basic skills). The group was affiliated to the Catholic church, and the priest treated the group's premises and equipment as if they were his own personal property. The committee and group members were too intimidated by him to do anything about this, even when he 'borrowed' the camioneta 'for a weekend' and two months later had still not given it back. They agonised over this in their meetings - how to ask him for the vehicle, and in one of those meetings, at which I was present, the priest sauntered in and you could see that they were all terrified of getting onto his wrong side. He had the slick demeanour of an oily mafioso, as far as I could see. On top of it all, he asked me if I could help him with a funding application in English, and guess what it was for - a pick-up truck. For all I know he's still using the bloody thing, five years on.

Next time we meet I'll tell you about all the good stuff. Unfortunately it doesn't make for such a good story.

I would avoid any group with a religious agenda, but that's my personal bias. The only exception might be some Jesuits.

Organisations I respect, including the one I work for, will support a religious group as long as they are not in the business of converting people, and they can demonstrate that they extend their work to people of all faiths, and indeed, none.

I've seen too many cases of religion being an obstacle to development (I've worked in South and Central America and in the Caribbean, as well as in the Middle East, so no one religion is being singled out for criticism here).

Most extreme but unfortunately also the most common examples are the archaic attitudes to women, especially when it comes to family planning.

More insiduous are the sects that teach the poor to accept their lot while here on earth, with the promise of infinite rewards in the afterlife. The latter is a political as well as religious agenda, because it stops people from challenging injustice and inequality, thus maintaining an unacceptable status quo. Then you have the ones who deliberately keep people in ignorance, and thus perpetuate underdevelopment.

Working For A "NGO",or an "International Aid Project" here In The DR Is My "DREAM JOB

I work in the same "Plaza" as the Dominican Red Cross,Dept of Emergencias,and the "OPS" and a "UN" Health "Something". They "LIVE LARGE"! Everyone with a "Yeppeta" Del Ano"! And they are paid "International Wages" ,but work "Dominican Hours"!
Even the US Embassy get all "Local" and US holidays off.I respected Ronald Regan,but I made the mistake of going to the US Consulate on the day of his funeral.CLOSED! I bet they were all in Mourning!
You really want to make friends who work for the "European Union",they love to "party" and put everything on their "Card"!
I probably feed aand cloth more dominican babies than "UNICEF"!!
With a lot less "Overhead"!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

.... How to empower communities without perpetuating dependence? ... I think you've said it Chiri.

From my own experience doing just a little work, this is a secret that one has to ponder. What also needs to be brought into the equation, is that the many 'aid' organizations, have in a sense inculcated the expectations of handouts. And I find that it is a tough road for the people that need help, to accept that they have to do a share to work toward independence.

The young girl that we sponsor to go to deaf school is a good example. I was adament from the beginning that we will do the financial part, but the family must do the infrastructure part - as best they can. It works to a fashion but not to my satisfaction. So every now and again, when Papa does not come to collect the school fees and school supplies, I do not run to the rescue. She stayed out of school the final term of last year to my great disappointment. But then the beginning of this year, the family came to talk about it, we again paid for school and uniforms and stressed again that they are responsible for lodging with family and transportation. So, now we are going again -- The only thing that totally bowled me over, was the undescribable joy on Jaqueline's face when she realized that she was going back to school.

Another issue around this is that we are not accepting donations for this any longer, excepting from people that we know and trust. It seemed that folks that made small donations, wanted to 'have a piece of the action' and came down here to be 'entertained' by the fact that they supported something. This is a kind of 'exploitation' that I have a hard time accepting. I know this sounds harsh and there are a number of very good folks that give from the heart.. with no expectations.

Currently I am exploring what we can do for a certain community in terms of micro self-help organizations. During this, I had occasion to spend time with some 'city fathers' of the district, whose only interest was how the funds that may be able to be raised, were going to be employed. Clear guidelines of accountability with direct measurable impact held no allure for the gentlemen. I was told in no uncertain terms that they have the ability to give or withold permits, so therefore they believe that the type of project that we should investigate is x, and obviously x would benefit themselves and their associates more than the community. I eventually called a halt to these proceedings after the folks decided to call a meeting with these associates so that I could present 'their' x project to their associates and talk about disbursement of funds. After this meeting I said to my husband that I felt as if the folks jumped on the bus and were driving down the road before the bus even appeared at the bus stop. So, we're rethinking how to approach this to create a joint effort toward independence and not a band 'aid' effort.

It is a hard question to answer...

Forgot to say that project X has no financial viability toward eventual independence.

MaineGirl said:

A recent discussion with my missions pastor has got me thinking.

Why does the DR have such a high concentration of aid organizations and charities?

What do you guys think?

Click to expand...

Interesting thread.
But what is your base/fact source that Dominican Republic have a high concentration of charities and aid organizations?
If that is a fact, it is great that people try to make a difference, but when browsing websites of organisations, un, eeu etc the Dominican Republic is not put on a priority anywhere..
Just curious of where you got this facts from.

Who is here?

- adding on to MaineGirl's list:

The biggies: the UN and its many branches, International Red Cross, and European Union and its many branches.

The bilaterals (i.e. governmental aid) USAID, Japanese government (JICA), Taiwanese government, Canadian government (CIDA), German government (DED), Swedish government (SIDA), British government (DFID) and Spanish government (Cooperacion Espa?ola), Swiss government (Helvetas), Norwegian government.

Other high-ish profile international non-governmental agencies: CRS (Catholic Relief Services), World Vision, CIIR/ICD, Belgian cooperation agency, Oxfam Spain (Intermon), Save the Children, World Lutheran Federation, Jesuit Refugee Service, GTZ, ENDA Caribe.

Then you have all the home-grown NGOs. As has been mentioned by a previous poster many of these are fronts for unscrupulous politicians, along with a number of dynamic, reputable outfits that do valuable work and are internationally recognised and respected. Profamilia, MUDE and CIPAF, among others.

I'm sure I've omitted some, if any more names come to me I'll add them in.

I think there are many small organizations in various communities around the world, that also makes a difference here, as well as the other bigger organizations.

I was curious if you had any facts, as to comparence to other countries etc.. Just to see where DR stands today in order of priority in comparence with other countries.

Anyone who have facts of that, please post, I think it is interesting for many of us living here as well as for those having alot of contact with the island.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the DR is not a big priority by international standards. Many organisations have shifted their focus away from Latin America and the Caribbean because with a couple of exceptions (Haiti, Guyana) there is a reasonable amount of local capacity and infrastructure at least.

Compared to what gets spent in Africa, the former Eastern bloc countries and post-Tsunami SE Asia, what goes on here is minimal, token even.

Even in the case of some agencies with bases in the DR, they might not be working in the DR itself and if they do, their work is concentrated in the border zones - mainly with Haitian migrants.

I just remembered that I recently spoke to someone from UNDP and he told me that the DR had one of the most unequal income distributions in the entire world. That in itself should confirm that any work done to alleviate the effects of poverty will be futile if it is not accompanied by campaigns to address its causes: corruption and mismanagement of state funds, and the failure that is the education system.