Rebuilding the Environment

Year: 2013
Country: Dominican Republic
Project Status: Funded
Impact Sector: Environment
Project Investment: $3,937.50

Project Launch:

A local youth group from Batey 5 in the Zona Canera (the sugar cane zone) will be trained to protect their environment by introducing trash management and launching the reforestation of their community. The kids will be participating in ten training workshops, installing community trash cans and leading the local community in regular trash collections, and will be planting and cultivating more than 500 new trees to improve the typically barren batey landscape.

 

Project Update

The project resulted in six community-wide trash clean ups and ten educational workshops with more than 30 young people in the Zona Canera. The group received 600 donated trees from the local environment ministry and have started planting them front and center in the Batey 5 community. Youth who did not miss more than three workshops/workdays were invited to a group educational excursion to the national botanical gardens and national aquarium in Santo Domingo to appreciate the themes learned in the educational workshops.

During the last months of the project, the youth focused on creating solutions to ensure the growth and survival of the trees and the project in general. Water availability is an issue within the community, so they’ve implemented a hose water system and rotating watering shifts, they built a fence around the planting area to improve security, and they continue to hold regular trash clean up days and tree planting days to ensure all 600 trees get planted.

 

Testimonials

“This project is so important because with the planting of trees and trash clean-up, we are eliminating the air pollution in our community and replacing these problems with beautiful trees.” Windy, Project Participant
“Planting a tree makes you proud and shows who cares about the community. You see that tree? I planted that tree when I was a kid. I watered it everyday and made sure no one hurt it.” Anasario, Project Participant

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