ECODOOR: Hope and Promise for the Dominican Republic

By Dr. Debra Payne , 21 October 2009

Just two of the beautiful sights in Barahona...This..

and this...

"Have you ever been to Barahona?" Teacher Elizabeth Rondon’s students in
La Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo’s (UASD) English Immersion Program asked me last month. I had become the English Immersion Program’s writing teacher during my all-too-brief stay in Santo Domingo.

I was within days of leaving the Dominican Republic for the United States when Elizabeth and her students asked me if I wanted to accompany them on their trip to Barahona. Financial and personal issues were driving me home against my will. I felt so sad to leave, and a little discouraged with my situation.

“Um…Bara-where?” I asked them.

After spelling the name of the town and explaining to me that Barahona, a beautiful town on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, was much less popular among tourists than in other locations, the students then announced their project.

Students in this program study English for four hours a day, Monday through Friday, for 7.5 months before beginning the business fair project. In this capstone project for UASD’s English Immersion Program, students identify a problem in their country and agree upon a possible business that could exist to help with this problem and also potentially generate income. Students from the English immersion program deliberate carefully upon problems and, in the process, quickly become problem solvers. Teacher Elizabeth’s students determined that pollution, poverty, and education all stood out as related issues that might be addressed in a business designed to promote eco-tourism in Barahona. They created a name for their business and a slogan, too, which read together as ECODOOR: Opening the Doors to Ecoturism (see http://www.ecodoor.blogspot.com/).

Eco-tourism? Sure! The Dominican Republic is filled with tourist spots, and it’s always interesting to see the contrast between the life of a typical Dominican person and the life that is portrayed at the resorts. Apart from the food, perhaps, the two don’t appear to be even remotely related at times! Eco-tourism, however, carries the hope of being less invasive, more appreciative of nature, and more respectful of the local communities. It also should involve sharing the socio-economic benefits with the local community, helping the community to prosper.

Even though ECODOOR is a class project and not a real business, it could be a business. Students even go as far as to appoint positions such as President, Vice President, Accountants, Secretaries, and Human Resource Personnel. This class project was so real to me that I began to imagine that it was. Elizabeth and her students organized the trip to Barahona to speak with the leaders of that community to see if this project would be viable were it to be implemented.

I shadowed them, and I watched and learned. As I did, my sadness disappeared. I saw a stellar example of how creativity and determination can chip away at any problem. And let me tell you…If the future of the Dominican Republic is left to students like the ones at the English Immersion Program, The Dominican Republic will create a new and better world. Trips like the one I made to Barahona are proof of that. This is hope in the making.

The following are a few pictures we took during the trip. Thanks, students, staff, and teachers at the English Immersion Program! I’m proud to have known you all, if for only a brief period of time, and I miss all of you very much!

Yours,

Teacher Debra

Leaving Santo Domingo for Barahona...