Habitat Project In The Dominican Republic––

A Working Vacation Where The Wages Are Love

By Jan Howard

A Newtown couple is helping to make life a little safer for people in another part of the world.

Anne and Ted Clark, who have lived in Newtown for 26 years, traveled in early April with ten other area volunteers to Paraiso, a fishing village on the southwest coast of the Dominican Republic. There they helped build concrete-block homes during Housatonic Habitat for Humanity’s annual “Tropical Build,” part of Habitat’s Global Village international service program instituted in 1989.

Habitat for Humanity is a nonprofit home-building organization based in Georgia. The Danbury-based Housatonic Habitat for Humanity was founded in 1991.

Volunteers with Housatonic Habitat worked on nine homes in Paraiso in 2001, and nine this year, and hopes to work on many more in the years ahead, according to Chris Goodrich, press officer for Housatonic Habitat.

Mr and Mrs Clark have been involved locally with Housatonic Habitat, helping to build homes in Newtown and neighboring communities. They became involved through Trinity Church, one of the covenant churches with Habitat.

Mrs Clark, a former relocation counselor, chairs the Family Partnership Committee of the local Habitat, helping to prepare people for home ownership. Mr Clark, a recruiter who specializes in placing attorneys with corporations, has also been involved with the local AmeriCare’s program.

“All the local volunteers had been involved with Habitat locally,” Mr Clark said.

The Dominican Republic trip was the Clarks first overseas Global Village project, and they speak highly of the people they met. They had such a good experience, they are looking forward to going on another project, perhaps to the same town.

“They did not speak English, and they were very patient with our not knowing Spanish,” Mrs Clark said. “They are very friendly people. Their warmth was so amazing.

“A couple of our people had been there previously,” she added. “The people remembered them even though other Habitat people have been there.”

Mrs Clark explained that Habitat housing is constructed for people of lower-middle income. “They must be qualified and have a job,” she said. “The people who are homeowners are responsible citizens.”

Mr Clark said people in the Dominican Republic are very receptive to Habitat housing. However, there are fewer people there who can afford it in comparison to the United States.

The homes volunteers constructed in Paraiso are designed to withstand hurricanes.

“Paraiso is a beach town,” Mr Clark explained. “Hurricanes have torn down a lot of houses and destroyed the coffee co-op, the only business there besides local commerce.” In 1998 Hurricane Georges killed hundreds of Dominicans and made many others homeless.

Roofs are constructed of concrete, with wood supports, and ensure a hurricane will not blow down the house. “It anchors the entire house against hurricanes,” Mr Clark said.

The houses are 520 square feet, with two bedrooms, a combined living room and kitchen, and a bath with a porch, and are located on small pieces of property on a hillside. The homes cost $4,500 to build using local skilled workers in addition to Habitat volunteers and current and future homeowners.

A $450 donation is required of each Global Village crewmember, with more than $5,000 donated by the 12-member crew from Housatonic Habitat. Habitat uses those donations toward future house construction.

Mr Clark said the Habitat organization screens for the best candidates as homeowners. The new homeowner helps build the house and gradually pays back the small, no-interest mortgage, which also funds more houses.

“We were working as unskilled, manual laborers,” he said. “They may let you lay cinder block. For the most part we were shoveling sand and gravel to mix concrete, and would carry the blocks to them.”

The projects also become an interchange of cultures, Mr Clark said.

Mr Clark said the Dominican Republic is only one of about 100 locations for Global Village projects around the world.

Global Village is well organized, Mrs Clark said, with local organizations in the countries where houses are being built. “They must have a national representative and a local representative, with a hired person on the building site.

“They have to organize it themselves,” Mrs Clark said.

“It gives you great joy to see it,” she said, adding she would like to see more volunteers from Newtown. “It’s nice to have people of all ages, and they really do try to maintain safety and health requirements.”

“It’s a working vacation,” Mr Clark said. “You’re tired every day. It’s harder work than we’re used to.”

He noted, however, in addition to helping to build the current house, “The contribution you made is paying for another house,” and so the building continues, perhaps not in the Dominican Republic, but somewhere people are in need of clean, safe housing.

“When we’re there, the local workers work hard. They do the planning while we’re there. There’s a great deal of activity,” Mr Clark said.

“They work so hard,” Mrs Clark said. “There is no way we can match what they do. The goal is to have a job.”

Of volunteering for a Habitat project, she said, “Anyone can participate.”

“Most people become interested through the local work, and see the advantage in getting involved internationally,” Mr Clark said.

The program is a mission trip, he explained. “There are prayers to begin the day at the work site. The local workers expected it and wanted it.”

Mrs Clark said on their first day in the village, their half-hour walk turned into two and a half hours as people kept inviting them into their homes.

“Everyone knew everyone,” Mr Clark said. “Adults and children wanted to be with us. They wanted us to see the houses that were built the previous year.”

“The houses were neat and clean and nicely furnished,” Mrs Clark said.

The people of Paraiso are very happy, despite lacking adequate medical care and clothing, Mr Clark said. They are also very close knit. “The children wander, and everyone looks after them to keep them safe,” he added.

According to Mrs Clark, they saw no malnourished people or visible poverty. “They share what they have. They are the most generous, welcoming people. We never felt safer in our lives.”

“They enjoy life a lot,” Mr Clark said. “They are very socially oriented and seek it among themselves or us.”

In spite of being happy, the goal of many in the Dominican Republic is to come to the United States, Mr Clark said. Some also have a source of income from having made it to the United States.

The volunteers brought tools, such as hammers and tape measures, with them to the project, and left them there. They also took 48 pairs of gloves that were donated by Home Depot.

“Any clothes you want to leave are welcome,” Mr Clark said. “We left two-thirds of the clothes we took to work in.”

Members of the Congregational Church of New Fairfield donated books, pens, and pencils to the local elementary school, which serves 1,300 students, in double sessions, for grades K–8. According to Habitat for Humanity, the children flocked to the Habitat job sites when they were not in school, and were thrilled when they realized some of the books were gifts and that they could keep the books in their own homes.

During breaks in construction, Mrs Clark would read to the children. She was also in charge of the medical kit. “When I pulled out BandAids, every kid wanted one.”

The work the Habitat volunteers do is very appreciated, the Clarks said. When they attended a church service in Paraiso, the priest preached about unconditional love and how to show it. “He used Habitat workers as an example,” Mrs Clark said. “During the passing of the peace, all these people came up to us. It took us all by surprise.”