The Dominican Republic

Our destination is Sosua in the northern part of The Dominican Republic.  The travel arrangements are again fairly straightforward as there is a local airport at Puerto Plata and the direct flight takes about 9 hours with a 4 hour time difference.

The educational project here is to build a classroom at the Asher School.  This is in a poor community and in desperate need of the accommodation.  Some think the DR is an affluent tourist destination; the reality is that poverty among the poor is truly awful and as bad as some of the worst places on earth.

The local hosting team are called The Samaritans Foundation who Nigel has been building homes and schools with since 2003. Find out more here.

We stay at the hotel, Sosua by the Sea. Sosua is a small town and its main industry is tourism.  It’s away from the big resort stuff at Puerto Plata.  There is no discernible risk from any political activity in the DR which is peaceful.  There are two people groups Dominicans (Spanish speaking) and Haitians (Creole speaking).

The itinerary focuses on building homes for slum dwellers or a classroom for a community. When we are on site for the building project there may well be informal opportunities to visit with local families.  In addition to the main project we take the team to visit some other projects which may include schools, healthcare facilities and a jewellery business for income generation among poor ladies.

The itinerary will also includes some “downtime” and embraces:

• Local cultural tours
• Shopping trips
• A visit to the 27 waterfalls and time on a beach
• A view from the mountain rising in a cable car to overlook the entire region

If you would like to know more about how your company may make a significant CSR impact, do get in touch today.