Princeton in Latin America

PiLA fellows Tim Cheston (front row, left) and Emilie Aguirre (front row, second from left) stand with the Parent's Association of the Dominican Literacy Project in Barahona, Dominican Republic.

With the sunshine at our back, the wind in our faces, and the beautiful Caribbean waters in front of us, it's hard to think we're not living in a tiny piece of paradise. Then the stark desperation of the situation lying before our eyes brings us back to a different reality: one where 20 adults, the majority of them undocumented Haitian migrants, are sitting around the middle school tables ready to learn the alphabet for the first time. My PiLA fellowship has taken me to the outskirts of Barahona in the Dominican Republic to work for the Dominican Literacy Project (DLP, for more info, go to www.dominicanliteracyproject.org).

The DLP is a rather young organization, barely four years old with only a handful of people in its staff in the Dominican Republic, that stands at an important crossroads in its organizational development. Having established its place in the community and having achieved a series of early successes, the organization is looking to expand its services and apply for bigger grants. The basic premise of my work, subsequently, is to conduct a year-long, multi-pronged census of the local community that will be used to help direct the future expansion of program services for the organization. The census work will additionally gather the necessary demographic information for grant applications, particularly economic information to ensure large foundations that the population being served is indeed poor (which unfortunately is not the hardest task ahead of me).

On a daily basis, then, I'll be conducting personal interviews throughout the community, although primarily with program beneficiaries, to talk first-hand about how the DLP can better help them help themselves. Nonetheless, I took this position with the DLP not only for the tremendous first-hand experience of the position and the importance of my work for directing the future of the organization, but also because of the unique circumstances of the community, which I would be remiss not to mention. The DLP works with a population of Haitian migrants or refugees, who largely lack documentation even though many of them are second or third-generation Dominicans. The problem stems from the fact that any child born in the Dominican Republic to undocumented Haitian parents is not granted Dominican citizenship as a birth right, and yet neither are they Haitian. Instead, such a child lies in the abyss of statelessness, where registration for school and access to public services such as health care becomes an elaborate process that often results in covert and even overt discrimination and extreme social marginalization.

Despite the gravity of the situation, though, we have still found several ways to enjoy ourselves. Whether its trekking to the nearby beaches, playing pick-up soccer across the street at the Olympic Village, or playing in the big local baseball league under the lights, every day is a new adventure...and I'll be sure to share the stories as they come.

Co-PiLA fellow, Emilie Aguirre (second to right), meets with the Education Minister of Barahona (yellow shirt in center) along with fellow teachers at the Dominican Literacy Project in order to take the first steps toward the certification of the school.