AllNationsInternational Blog

Dominican Republic

What does baseball have to do with poverty?

What does baseball have to do with poverty? This lesson has taken a while to learn. At first I thought that people needed basic medical, nutritional, and educational support. But a couple of years ago I was talking to some young men in a small village who were begging me for sports equipment. I was at first annoyed by their requests when I saw their younger brothers and sisters lacking food etc. So one day I asked the boys why they need this equipment. They told me that their life was joyless. They worked six and a half days a week to support their families. I knew this to be true. Then one of the boys said something that really struck me. He said, one afternoon of sports brings their only joy in a week. I saw in his eyes that this had everything to do with hope and the human spirit. He was right. We need to feed the soul too.

Father Dale

I will be traveling to the Dominican Republic from December 27th – Jan. 4th. I will have space to carry some baseball equipment with me. If you would like to donate or collect any new or used baseballs, gloves, and bats, please email me. If you know anyone who would like to donate any equipment or funds for equipment, please give them our contact information.

Thank you for your help.
Ronald Rogers
rrogers@allnationsintl.com

Dove Missions

This is Sam. We are at a village distributing supplies. When there are children around, you can be sure Sam will have them in his arms.

Liz McKie

Pitiless world of the slave children

Haitian children are regularly sold as slaves in the Dominican Republic, where they are used as labourers, domestic servants or prostitutes.
Photo: The New York Times
The Dominican Republic is accused of turning a blind eye to the thriving trade in youngsters, which sees Haitian children sold as cheap labourers and prostitutes for little more than $120. Gary Younge in Santo Domingo reports.
ON MARKET day in Dajabon, a bustling Dominican town on the Haitian border, you can pick up many bargains if you know where to look. You can haggle the price of a live chicken down to 40 pesos ($1.70); wrestle 4.5 kilograms of macaroni for 60 to 50 pesos ($2.12-$2.55); and, with some discreet inquiries, buy a Haitian child for the equivalent of $128.
“You just ask around town,” says Hilda Pe-a, who monitors border crossings for the Jesuit Refugee Service. “People know who the scouts are. You just tell them what kind of child you are looking for and they can bring across whatever it is that you want.”
There is a thriving trade in Haitian children in the Dominican Republic, where they are mostly used for domestic service, agricultural work or prostitution. Eight-year-old Jesus Josef was one of them. Numbed by a mixture of trauma and shyness, this small boy with huge eyes cannot recall how he left his three brothers and mother in Haiti and ended up doing domestic work for a Dominican family in Barahona, 190 kilometres from the capital, Santo Domingo.
Jesus sits quietly as Father Pedro Ruquoy, who runs a refuge near Barahona, tells how the boy escaped from the family and ran away to a local hospice. When he arrived, his neck was twisted from carrying heavy loads and the marks on his torso suggested ill-treatment. The Dominican family found out where he was and came to the hospice demanding either his return or 10,000 pesos ($427) for the loss. “They used him as a slave,” says Ruquoy. “And they tortured him.”
Nobody knows quite how many Haitian children like Jesus there are in the Dominican Republic. A UNICEF report in 2002 put the figure at about 2500, although some non-government organisations think it might be twice that. Most boys under 12 end up begging or shoe shining and giving their proceeds to gang leaders; most girls of that age are used as domestic servants. Older boys are taken to work in construction or agriculture; teenage girls often end up in prostitution.
Tensions have long existed between the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola. In May and again last month, the Dominican Republic summarily deported thousands of Haitians, many of whom had the right to stay. A former Haitian consul to the republic, Edwin Paraison, says the situation has not been this bad since former Dominican military leader Rafael Trujillo massacred 20,000 Haitian sugar cane workers in 1937.
“This is the first time regular people are trying to run Haitians out of the country,” he says. “There is an organised campaign to reject Haitian presence.”
But even as Haitians are reviled, they are also needed for cheap labour. The manner in which the children arrive varies. Some are kidnapped, but most often their parents not only know but actually pay “busones” or scouts to ensure their safe passage in the hope that they will have a better life.
“Half of all Haitians struggle to eat even once a day,” says Helen Spraos, Christian Aid’s Haiti representative. “It doesn’t take much to push people over the brink. If the rains fail or someone falls ill, they have to sell what little they have (perhaps a pig or a goat) to buy medicines. Eventually they have to sell their land. Once they reach rock bottom, the one way they can provide for their children is by sending them to live in the cities or in the Dominican Republic. There, at least, they may be fed and have some prospects for making a living.”
Such stories are familiar in the narrow alleyways of Christo Rey, an area of Santo Domingo. Nine-year-old Louseny’s mother died when she was a baby and she was raised by her grandmother in central Haiti. Last month, her grandmother paid her “aunt” to bring her over the border and leave her with people Louseny did not know.
“In most cases, the Haitian family is told that the child will go to someone who will help raise the child,” says Father Jose Nu-ez, the director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in Santo Domingo. “They are told they will get an education and have a better chance. But this actually happens very, very rarely. In most cases, they are verbally or physically abused and mistreated.”
Getting them over the border is the easy part. According to the UN Children’s Fund, about a third of trafficked children come through the mountains; the rest go through official border checkpoints. On market day in Dajabon, the only papers you need to get across the bridge that links the two countries are peso notes to bribe the border guards. Those who are turned back simply wade across the Massacre river.
“The scouts are paid around 600 pesos, half of which goes to the scout and half of which is paid to the immigration authorities as a bribe,” says Angelica Lopez, the Jesuit Refugee Service director in Dajabon. “The Dominican state and the military are completely complicit in the trafficking.” There is a law against trafficking in the Dominican Republic, but it is rarely enforced and the authorities remain in denial. “There is no trafficking,” says Juan Casilla, the state prosecutor for Dajabon. “I have never had one case of trafficking lodged with my office.”
Ruquoy says the sugar companies are also complicit, paying Haitian traffickers about $62 for each worker.
Over at the sugar fields near Barahona, the smell of burning cane stems and the sound of slashing machetes suggest a scene from another century. Hundreds of men, their ragged clothes held together by sweat and grime, hack away at smouldering stems, which are easier to cut when burned. From 6am until 6pm they are there, swinging, yanking, slicing and burning for about $2.35 a day. Ask any of them and they will tell you they are 18. Look and you will see that about one in eight could not possibly be older than 16.
Jesus Nord, 15, used to be one of them. Two years ago, he paid a Haitian scout to smuggle him over the border then went to work in the fields for a year. After being cheated of his earnings and physically abused, he left. “I was never there when they weighed the sugar so they would give me less then they owed,” he says.
The trafficking of Haitian children represents the bottom rung of a migratory ladder through the Americas that sees Dominicans striving to get to Puerto Rico, and Puerto Ricans moving to the US. “The market for cheap labour keeps people moving,” says Nu-ez. “Since so many other countries have closed their doors to Haitians, the only chance they have is to go to the country that is slightly less poor than Haiti and the easiest to get to. The economy could not function without them. But it takes a terrible toll on the individuals.”

New York Times

Report from a Volunteer

Here is a report from Lisa Mastain on her mission trip.

The ShoeshineBoys
The glow of their happiness fell on Mom and me like a blessing. These young boys were so open-hearted and appreciative of our attention. One little boy held my hand tightly as he carefully led me across a busy street to the park. He smiled up at me – so proud to be of help. And then we played hackey-sack in the park. They laughed at mom and me as we lunged after the balls – and when mom slipped and fell on her bum all of the boys scampered over to her and grabbed her arms and helped her up. It made me smile to see them brushing the sand off her pants and patting her arms and making sure she was okay.

One little guy looked a lot like Robbie and made both Mom and I tear up. His name was Richard, and in his eagerness to impress us he did a flip and hurt his foot. I took my time cleaning and bandaging his wound. When I was done I looked up and saw that a bunch of the boys had been watching us, and they all beamed at me and thanked me for taking care of their friend. I think in a way, by lovingly nurturing and caring for Richard, all the boys watching felt nurtured.

We made lunch for the boys on two different days, and had a party for them and for some of the neighborhood girls. They loved the attention, the gifts, and the food. One of the most touching moments was when one of the boys stood up and said grace. He bowed his little head and clasped his hands tightly together and with great sincerity and humility he thanked God & each and everyone in the room for the food, gifts and the party. And then he asked God to bless the food and to watch over all of us. His prayer and gratitude were so sincere and moving, he had Alta Gracia crying and the rest of us swallowing the large lumps in our throats.

Saints and Angels
This trip was truly one of the most spiritual experiences of our lives. We were guided and supported by a host of angels and saints. Every day we prayed together and felt protected, supported, guided and affirmed by spirit. The divine was with us.

Mom and Me
Through working with the impoverished children and the wonderful people of the Dominican Republic mom and I had an opportunity to share some very moving experiences, and to deepen our own relationship. We laughed, cried and hugged and found a greater understanding and appreciation for each other and for the unique gifts we each bring into this world.

Loving Community
Both mom and I were continually amazed and touched by the warmth and kindness of the Dominican people. Everyone we met, from Serbio, our driver, to the waiters and managers at the resort to the children we served greeted us with open arms, smiles, hugs and kisses. We must have been hugged 100 times during that one week. The people were so close to one another and welcomed us into their communities and homes with a warmth and openness that we rarely encounter here in the United States . We felt our hearts fill with the affection and appreciation of the people we met. Even when we brought them gifts, we always felt that we were the ones receiving.

Babies and Moms
We went to the hospital to visit the new moms and their babies and to distribute the gift bags we put together with hygiene items and baby clothes. The hospital looked like it was from the 1800s: 12 to 16 beds in a room (and all of them full of women who just gave birth or women about to give birth) with old wooden cribs next to the beds holding the babies. There were no doctors anywhere – and I only saw one nurse in the admitting room. A woman was giving birth behind a curtain. The Haitian women were separated from the Dominican women and some were clearly in pain.

The Little Things
On the last day we were there, we went to visit Ramon’s family in the slum near the Congrejo School and the Mustard Seed Handicapped children’s home. Ramon’s family was delightful. His grandma was so proud of Ramon and happy as pie to receive some little gifts from us. The neighbor kids clearly loved Ramon, and surprised me when they lined up in a straight line in front of him to eagerly receive a single toothbrush each. I’ve never seen children so happy to receive a gift of any kind (let alone a toothbrush – something we take for granted). They were laughing and shouting “I have a red one! I have a blue one!”

Support of our family
This experience has reminded us both again of how fortunate we are to have such a loving and close family, and to have their support as we engage in challenging and personally meaningful experiences.

Who do we serve?

Volunteer in the DR

Vetting is the process of seeking the truth of the situation. I believe it is important to not only serve people but to really understand the people for whom your service is given. Much help here in this country is given by people who do not know the people they serve. It is service on the surface level. We often call these hit and run operations. Go to a foreign country, bring people some shirts and shoes, and then leave. There are several dangers in such behavior. While it is temporarily helpful to offer the poor “stuff” in the end it does not solve the systemic issues. I do not fault people whose hearts and wallets open up to those who live in abject poverty. It is a natural response. But you cannot have Christmas every day. It would break the bank, create dependency, and spoil the recipients. Mature giving requires vetting the situation, developing real relationships with people, and teaching people to fish. What I mean by this is that we must go into the places where people live, listen, humbly learn from those whom you are serving, and respect the wisdom of people who have learned to survive. For the last year we have been vetting information on the street children we serve. One day a week I go into the barrios and when invited, go into the places where these children live. Generally these are predatory environments. I cannot tell you the number of people who claim to be parents of these kids hoping to get some imagined gain or gift. Yesterday I went into the barrio of Cangrejo where many of our children who go to our school in Cagrejo live. It is part of the vetting process. I was invited by some of the children to visit their homes. It was just shocking and I have lived here for four years. Many did not have clean or running water in their home, others lived in fairly deplorable conditions with not toilets. Still, there were some dramatic differences compared to the barrios of Puerto Plata where our street children live. The mothers I talked to were so committed to their children who go to extraordinary lengths to keep their children clean and healthy. I was so impressed with their ingenuity and determination. I saw men in the barrio trying to make a living. One man with a sewing machine was doing an admirable job sewing school uniforms, repairing clothes, and being of real service to his community. He was the grandfather of one the children who was shepherding me around the barrio. Service is not real or fundamental, I believe, unless there is a deep commitment to developing real relationships with the people one serves. This requires knowing the truth of the situation. When we know the truth it frees us to think deeply and more strategically to help one another.

Father Dale

How can we help, really?

We are all connected. We share the life force within us that bring us together. That life force is love. With the different types of love that there are, that just reinforces in me how powerful it is. Paul talks about the three most important virtues to have; Faith, Hope and Love. The greatest of these is Love. IT IS THE GREATEST! Exercising love is the most powerful way to help us in this ministry. I see it everyday here, in some small way, I witness an act of love that almost brings me to tears. For example, last night we drove down the Melacon to see if any of the street boys were out. We try to do this every night so if they are out we make sure they know we are watching and care about their safety. Well, last night 5 boys were on the street looking for trouble and we stopped them. We started with the questions like “what is going on, why are you out so late, where is the shoeshine kit we just bought you?” and so on. In the middle of this discussion a very old skinny woman with no teeth and no shoes walked up to me and asked me for money. I sharply replied “No”. I didn’t want to be interrupted by anyone to show how serious the matter at hand was. One of the boys who was a Haitian, who had just explained they didn’t have the money for the motoconcho home, handed her 5 pesos (US .14cents). I felt so little. I think God has chosen me to be driven to humility. This act of charity is what I am speaking about. It is a seemingly small act with a powerful witness to others. We need your help. Anything that you could do to help us would lighten our load and encourage us to continue in love in this ministry. When I receive a response to a blog, or a phone call from back home my heart is filled with joy! I know that the poor and the forgotten are being thought of and prayed for. I know that what we are doing is connecting people worlds apart with the greatest gift-Love. Will you walk with us in this ministry, please? Will you pray with us to end poverty, disease and hunger in our lifetime? Search yourself and ask yourself if there is anything you can do-write a email, gather much needed supplies, come here and walk with us, sponsor our mission, raise awareness in your workplace and communities. Anything to help us “feel the love”

The writing on Alberto’s front door says “together with hope” How profound.

Liz McKie

Thank you! 32 children can go to school!

What a huge success! We were able to send children from Aguas Negros, Playa Ewesta, Padre Granero and Padre Las Casas barrios. I can’t even explain to you the joy in shopping for all of these children. Some were intimidated at first and I believe they had never been in this main store in town. Before long there were giggles and fitting room trips and tons of grateful smiles. Many blessings were poured out from this experience.

Liz McKie

Poisoned lives in God’s Paradise

Haina.- Johan Luciano is 13 years old and got kicked out of school in the first grade, because nothing he learned ever stayed in his head.
Environmental experts who know him say his developmental delay is the direct result of a battery recycling plant that operated in the Paraiso de Dios (God’s Paradise) neighborhood of Haina for a decade, dumping battery acid and lead into the soil and into the neighborhood kids.
It’s an area where his barefoot playmates play stickball, and that one New York environmental group placed third in its list of 10 most polluted spots on the planet.
The illegal battery smelter so contaminated children here that some of them have been found with what are supposed to be fatal levels of lead in their blood. But they are alive – many of them with eye problems, seizures, severe learning deficiencies and blank stares like Johan’s.
“I can’t go in there,” Johan said about the lot where the factory once stood, a steady gaze to the floor. “There’s too much lead.”
Ten years after community and media pressure forced the closure of the plant, neighborhood children are still testing positive for lead poisoning. They’re still taking short cuts through the lot where piles of old batteries are buried and washing lead down a hill into people’s homes every time it rains.
Environmentalists say the case is an extreme example of government inertia, and of how sometimes community pressure, outside experts and even available funding cannot compete against a lack of will.
“You’re dealing with some of the most incompetent people in the world,” Stephen Null, the New York anti-lead activist who first discovered the town’s problems more than 10 years ago, said of the various government functionaries who were supposed to help. “And a lot of them are corrupt.”
Johan lives in Paraiso de Dios, a low-income section of Haina, 12 miles west of Santo Domingo. The Blacksmith Institute, an organization that helps developing countries resolve pollution problems, last fall lumped it with Chernobyl and a place called Maiuu Suu, Kyrgyzstan, which is suffering from gamma radiation.
Blacksmith experts were back in Haina last week with the same goal they began with 10 years ago: cleaning up a place so contaminated some scientists say it would be better to move the 80,000 neighbors someplace else.
“The contamination is unbelievably high,” said Jack Caravanos, a Hunter College environmental science professor who collected soil samples for Blacksmith. “You could practically mine for lead there.”
Haina’s story began in the mid 1990s when Null, director of New York-based Friends of Lead-Free Children, was in Santo Domingo giving a lecture, trying to get the government there to stop using leaded gasoline. Null was approached by someone in the audience and told about a company called Metaloxa that was recycling batteries and contaminating kids.
Null visited and found a lot with 30-foot high piles of batteries. The smelter sat atop a hill surrounded by homes and operated around the clock. The entire neighborhood was filled with lead fumes.
First, Null had the employees tested for lead.
“Anything above 70, 80 or 90 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood is serious and results in swelling of the brain,” Null said. “These guys were at 300. I am sure they were going to die.”
According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, a lead blood level above 10 is too high. Higher than that, the lead starts to change the brain’s chemistry, leading to neurological problems like a low IQ. Other problems include problems with vision, seizures and hyperactivity.
When Null and the scientists he brought in tested 147 of Haina’s kids in the spring of 1997, 91 percent of them had lead poisoning. The average blood level was 71, and one kid had 247.
“My son’s fingernails turned purple and he started having seizures,” said Elicia Fortuna, whose 12-year-old son Robinson was among the most contaminated. “He can’t keep still. He knows something one moment, and then he just forgets.”
Like other children, he is given vitamin supplements to keep his lead level in check.
“Of the 20 worst children, about half can’t go to school today because of permanent brain damage,” said Conrado Depratt, a chemistry professor at Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo. “Their IQs dropped to the floor. Those are irreversible damages. In the United States, people would be behind bars.”
Activist Sandra Castillo, whose son was hospitalized with seizures, got enough community support to force Metaloxa to move away in 1997. Two years later, the batteries were gathered and buried, and the owners put up a metal door to keep people out.
“We have never taken an irresponsible attitude,” said company vice president Juan Arturo Biaggi. “When we started in 1979, nobody lived there, and there were at least five other battery recyclers and a gasoline refinery. But they want to throw the entire town’s problems at us.”
Once the smelter moved and the batteries were buried, kids’ lead levels dropped dramatically, but they were still about triple what they should have been.
Then rains came and a cement wall around the buried batteries crumbled, leaving an open path for the debris to slide downhill. Then scavengers came and dug up the metals worth selling. It wasn’t long before the metal door was gone, too – sold for scrap.
The Blacksmith Institute learned of the town and did follow-up testing. They found soil levels of 463,970 parts per million. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits are 400.
“They thought, ‘it’s closed, they moved out, problem solved,’” Caravanos said. “But what was left was contaminated land. I’ve never seen a community with such high soil levels. It was striking.”
Deputy Secretary of Environmental Affairs Zoila Gonzalez said she does not know why the site has not been cleaned 10 years later, because the government environment ministry was not created until six years ago.
The government, she said, forced Metaloxa to move and then last year shut down its new locale, as well.
“Blacksmith’s list gives the impression nothing has been done, but it has been a worry for some time,” Gonzalez said. “It may not be as fast as we want. We don’t have the money the United States or Europe may have, but we have been doing the work.”
Environmental prosecutor William Lara said he expects to file criminal and civil charges against the company soon but is waiting for environmental reports. For his part, Biaggi said he has been waiting for the reports. He doubts he can pay the estimated $2 to $4 million for cleanup and monitoring, but he has already lined up a company to excavate the site.
“I have been waiting for a report with the solution and what part we have to contribute,” Biaggi said. “And then I don’t hear from them.”
In the meantime, children like cross-eyed Rubi Romero, 2 years old and born some eight years after Metaloxa closed, has a lead level double what the CDC considers safe.
After a series of meetings last week, including with the Minister of Environment, Blacksmith president Richard Fuller said all sides have agreed to a remediation plan.
“The damage to these kids is permanent,” Fuller said, adding that funding has been secured. “Thousands of kids, thousands, all of them, their parents, and all the kids being conceived are poisoned.
“But it will get cleaned up, I promise.”

Dominican Today

South Carolina Volunteers for three months

Volunteer Service in the DR

Trina Cook from South Carolina arrrived last week to begin volunteering for three months in the Cangrejo school. She is taking a sabbatical from her profession as an accountant and auditor. She said after the first day of teaching, “this is everything I dreamed it could be. One girl came up after the lesson and hugged me.” Trina remarked on the profound sense of gratitude these children have for their education.

Trina is a graduate of North Carolina University.

Denied Again!

Volunteer Service in the DR
If your Haitian and born in the Dominican Republic, perhaps in a shack because your mother is afraid to go to the medical clinic ,you are doomed to live on the streets polishing shoes, selling eggs, perhaps doing stoop labor without any possibility of improving your station in life. Your kids will speak Creol and not Spanish because you did not have an education that could have changed the course of life if not for yourself, at least for your children. Education is the answer.

These people are only illegal because they are poor and of Haitian origin. They are in legal limbo. They have been here in some cases three or four generation.

Today the minister of Education for Puerto Plata back-peddled and said that the newspaper reported misunderstood him. Now he is saying children of Haitian origin without birth papers cannot enter school. A number of NGO’s have been trying to register children this week based on the promise of Pedro Diep regional education director who said he was misunderstood or in his words “un error en apreciacion”. So the Dominican government will continue its policy of denying children with Haitian background to be denied access to a school education. Sad and tragic.

We took him at is word and began bringing children to both private and public school for registration only to be denied. Apparently Mr Diep got a lot of grief about this from schools who began calling an complaining about Dominican-born-Haitian children showing up on their doorsteps. Shame on the Dominian Republic.

University of Minnesota Human Rights Library has recently reported that Dominican leaders are “opposed to the rights of Haitian immigrants and tend to speak of Haitians as an undifferentiated mass, making no distinction between Dominican-Haitians and Haitian citizens, suggesting and, at times, affirming explicitly that those born in the Dominican Republic are as Haitian as their parents who were born in Haiti. However, social research suggests that Dominican-Haitians are culturally Dominican, are loyal to the Dominican Republic, and seek to obtain legal citizenship of the country in which they were born and the only one they know. Late registration is often the only way that Dominican-Haitians have of obtaining an official birth certificate. Many Haitians in the Dominican Republic decide to give birth to their children at home, instead of going to a medical center, due to lack of financial resources and the difficulty of having access to adequate means of transportation from remote rural settlements, or to the fear that hospital personnel or police agents will report them, since many of them are in the country illegally. In recent years, hospital personnel have denied birth certifications even to Domincan-Haitians born in hospitals. The recruitment of Haitians to come the the DR is frequently permitted and even assisted by the Dominican government and police because very few Haitians would dare to enter a country for the first time where they know no one, do not speak the language, and have no guarantee of employment. ”

Father Dale

Too poor to go to school!

Volunteer Service in the DR

Can you imagine seeing all the kids going to school but you cannot because you are too poor? This boy, Junior, said to me that he wants to go to school very much. I took him to a private Baptist school. They rejected him because his Spanish is poor. How can his Spanish be poor. He is eight years old. Then I took him to the private Catholic school. They would not accept him because he does not have a birth certificate. But I said, the secretary of education for the region said they do not need this requirement anymore. “Well it is our requirement ” they said.” So I said, “The Catholic Church is the moral voice of the country and you are telling me that you will not accept this child because he is too poor to afford a birth certificate and he is of Haitian origin?”
They said to me, “It is not because he is Haitian, it is because he does not know Spanish?” they said, “How is he going to learn unless he goes to school? Besides, he has not even spoken one word to you. How do you know if his Spanish is not good enough?” I said. Silence. Then they said, “Take him somewhere else! This is not our problem!” they said. “Shame on you!” I said. He will be your problem if he is not educated. He was born here! It is your responsibility.” Tomorrow I will take him to the public school. We will see what happens there.

Father Dale