Centro Puente, in Dajabon
We have a great number of exciting activities happening this month. I wanted to take this chance to share highlights of what is keeping us busy and what will be coming soon:
Work in Both Countries
1. Completing a survey of our main local partners: At the request of our donor, we are doing a survey of our local partners to determine how they are currently functioning and to serve as a baseline to measure the impact of the work that we are doing with them this year. We have hired a consultant for either side of the border and hope to have their reports soon. Once the reports are finalized, we will post them on this website.
2. Study on cross-border perceptions: One of the major stumbling blocks to cross-border collaboration is the deep-seated negative feelings that many Haitians and Dominicans have for each other. These negative perceptions are rooted in the shared history of the island, but have been allowed to fester on both sides of the island. We asked Dr. Gerald Murray to conduct a socio-anthropological study to document the cross-border perceptions that are generally held by Haitians and Dominicans in the hopes that by shedding light on these perceptions, it will be easier to correct the misconceptions. Dr. Murray will arrive here next week and will complete his work in October.
Work focused on the Dominican Republic borderlands
3. Taking the Fear out of Finance: We are running a five-day workshop this week (September 7-11) for the directors and accountants of our local partner institutions. When we began working on the border, we looked around for the most appropriate training program to use with our local partners. We settled upon the courses offered by a British NGO, MANGO. We brought their head trainer, Terry Lewis, to the Dominican Republic to train our trainers and licensed their “Financial Management 1″ material. We have since offered the course several times here in the Dominican Republic and once down in Colombia.
The beauty of the MANGO course is that it focuses on the importance of management systems rather than getting bogged down in the details of accounting. Additionally, the Mango Trainer-of-Trainer course provided us with excellent training techniques that we now use in all of our trainings.
Fronteras en Transición
4. Updated and revised book on the Dominican Borderlands: We are working with Haroldo Dilla of Ciudades y Fronteras to update their excellent reference book on the border, Frontera en Transicion. The new version will include both updated articles as well as some new ones and will come out in paperback in January. We are currently exploring how we could distribute it beyond our local offices in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Work focused on the Haitian borderlands
5. Study of the Production Potential of the Haitian Borderlands: We’ve hired Paul Duret, former Minister of Planning and long-time expert on the Haitian border, to conduct a study of what could be done to stimulate greater production in the Haitian borderlands. One of the significant problems in that area is the lack of big ideas. Most of the population barely survives on subsistence agriculture and there is little investment from the private sector. We asked Paul to dig through the reports on the border, visit the area, and meet with our local partners to determine how best the private sector and the international community could invest in the borderlands. We are hoping that his report will help us attract more development to this region. The report will be coming out in October in French. We will keep you posted of its progress and when it will be published on the website.
Construction of the Belladere Complex
6. The Belladere Border Complex: We’ve been working with the Haitian government for the last couple of years to build a modern complex at the Belladere-Elias Piña border. The old complex is at the edge of the town of Belladere, four kilometers from the border. Not only are the old buildings too small and falling apart, by being so far from the border the authorities are not able to directly observe what happens at the border or to receive the repatriated Haitians from the Dominican officials. We will complete the construction of the new facilities by the end of next month and then work with the Haitian officials to install the equipment and make the complex operational.
We have a whole slew of new training seminars that will begin in the next few weeks as our work with the MIF heats up. We will keep you posted on the progress of these new seminars as they are developed.
