Dominican Republic Adventures Part 2

After a couple days of relaxing on the beach and traveling around the Dominican Republic, our trip shifted. The purpose of our trip now was to experience HOPE International's life changing work in the DR. This part of the trip rejuvenated my energy and reasoning for volunteering with HOPE this summer. It has been an awesome summer/fall with HOPE, but up until this point, I didn't have any ownership of microfinance's impact on those in poverty.

Here are 4 quick stories from visiting clients in Hato Mayor and San Pedro...

Aura had a really interesting story. Typically women in the Dominican Republic are very dependent on their husbands. After Aura's husband passed away, she wanted to be able to provide for her family and not have to move in with other family members. The First Lady in the Dominican Republic gave Aura a scholarship to go to a trade school to learn chemistry. She spent 3 months learning how to make hair products and then did some teaching as well at the school. The income from teaching wasn't enough to support her family so she decided to make her own hair products. We talked to her sons and they mentioned how much their quality of life has improved since their mom started selling these products. Coincidentally, her sons names were Michael and Daniel. So Mike and I had to take a picture with them (Aura is in the background). Aura was extremely grateful that we cared about her story and for the support of HOPE. She talked with us for about an hour and kept offering us drinks so we would stay and chat with her family.

Next, we headed a little ways further down a dirt road and we stopped at Agueda's home. She produces cheese and acts as a wholesaler to supermarkets in the DR. The cheese that she makes out in the country is then picked up, packaged under various brand names, and sold throughout the country. She gave us a sample of her cheese and a piece of dulce de leche (both were great). Agueda also sells ice cream from her home. I was continually surprised by the many things these people gave to us.

We headed back to San Pedro from Hato Mayor to visit 2 more clients, Jose Luis Rincon and Milan Tapia. Jose has an amazing story. He manufactures wheelbarrows with a lifetime guarantee (supposedly the only life time warranty in the country). He started building them out of a wood shack that he lived in. As a result of the loans he's received and the expansion of his business. He has now built a modest two story cement block building. The first floor is his work shop and the top story is his home. He has a truck to transport his wheelbarrows to construction sites and for the hour we were with him, he did not stop smiling. In 30 minutes he built about half of a wheelbarrow by hand. It was truly impressive. Within a few minutes he knew all of our names and was joking with us in Spanish. He got us all involved in one way or another. He gave me the chance to try some welding. Jose is one of HOPE's all-star clients and his joy was contagious.

The last client we visited today was Milan. She started with a HOPE loan years ago when she had a sewing business. After she experienced great success and was employing 7 other seamstresses, she decided to open up a school for underprivileged children. It was initially in her home and she quickly outgrew her capacity. She rallied her community and government to help her construct a bigger school building. Now she has 385 students and desperately needs more space because of the demand for the education she is offering. As a result of Milan's success, she is giving back to her community. Spending an hour with Milan was moving. Seeing the children respect her and love on her like a mother was heart warming. It really reminded me a lot of going to visit my mom at her school and how students loved her. Milan recognized my level of Spanish and talked with me at that level. She will be traveling to Lancaster to speak the HOPE Annual Breakfast in November and I wish I could be there to see her again.

I'll save the rest of the HOPE trip for Part 3 because there is too much to share...