Humanitarian work. It is finally going to happen.
Together with the team of Global Potential we are going to cooperate with the local community:
OUR MISSION: Provide urban youth from low-income communities with the skills and perspective that enable them to affect positive change in their lives, communities, and the global community, through engagement in leadership training, social entrepreneurship, international cultural exchange and service learning
WHEN: June 29th to August 18th 2011
WHERE: Batey Cuchilla is a small community of about 800 residents, surrounded by sugarcane fields on all sides. Most residents are grandchildren or children of Haitian immigrants who came to work in the sugarcane fields, or were born in Haiti themselves. The economy of Batey Cuchilla is based primarily on sugarcane. Additionally, some people work in other sectors of agriculture and raising livestock. There is a high rate of unemployment, illiteracy, and child labor. Forty percent of children in Cuchilla do not have a birth certificate, and therefore cannot continue their studies past the 8th grade. In Cuchilla, there is a community center and a baseball field. There is a four-room school that serves children up to fifth grade. There are four churches, five stores, two hair salons, two bars. There are no paved roads. The majority of houses are made of wood or cement with dirt floors and outdoor bathrooms. Running water and electricity are intermittent, and the community shares around 20 latrines. There are two health clinics in Bateys 6 and 8 nearby. During heavy rains, the community is often cut off from the outside due to roads being washed away or flooded.
WHAT:As a Youth Facilitator, I will lead a group of New York public high school students to a rural village in the Dominican Republic/Haiti for six weeks to work on community development projects. My main responsibility is ensuring safety and supervision of the youth, and my duties will include: attending to the emotional needs of the youth, helping the youth conduct a needs assessment of the local community, acting as a liaison between the youth and community leaders to develop projects that are beneficial to the community, and fostering an environment of mutual respect, cooperation, and global learning for the students and community members. I will act as a leader as well as an active participant in all community projects. In the past, projects have included construction work, a community mural, a community garden, trash clean-ups, documentary film making, goat farming, tutoring, and interactive community workshops on health, racism, and poverty. This year, I will be facilitating Training Managing Skills, a project in which I apply the management training theory I received at my University, Hotelschool the Hague.
