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Day 6

Updated: Jul 6, 2019

To reach the Movement of Dominican Haitian Women (MUDHA), we had to drive to the outskirts of Santo Domingo to a tiny, poor town. The bus struggled to bounce down narrow dirt roads lined tin houses as we passed some Dominican kids waving up at us. To finally reach the school, we made our way through alleys filled with chickens pecking at debris. This town is just one of 20 locations MUDHA is assisting. The nonprofit has many working parts: Human rights issues, documentation for citizenship in the D.R., protection of immigrants, health initiatives, education and female empowerment to name a few. The school we visited serves mainly to assist Haitian immigrants and their children. They offer education, food and support within the struggling communities. Many Haitians move to the Dominican Republic for better opportunities but a law passed in 2013 is making it difficult for the immigrants to create new lives here. The new bill boils down to the fact that in order to be a Dominican citizen, children must be born in the D.R. to Dominican parents. Since they aren’t citizens, these immigrant descended children cannot receive birth certificates which is similar to not having a social security number in America. This means no schooling, license or career development in the future. Their crime is being children of descendants of Haitians that happen to live in the Dominican Republic. “This is not the tourist part of the D.R., this is not the cultural part of the D.R., this is the real part” Listian, the founder of MUDHA warned us as we sat down with her to learn more about their mission. 


This movement against Haitian immigrants is from a system that is rooted in racism and discrimination. “Being black is a crime here. If you are black you did something wrong in the eyes of the government.” Listian revealed to us. However, the issue of skin color is not a big deal to most citizens, it is the government that is seeking these issues out. “The systemic racism that is embedded in the government is just accepted by the people” Listian laid out blatantly. These racist issues within the government affect the lives of the Haitian descended students. The volunteers of MUHDA told us about students who had been denied scholarships and entry into schools due to their heritage. These students are being denied their nationality and shamed for their family roots. These kids are our age and have the same interests but they have a limited life without a name or nationality. “Their future is not programmed like yours” Listian continued, “instead of having long term goals, their immediate goals are to find a partner and make a family. They replicate the life their family lived. But even with all these issues they still have values. With the little that they have been blessed with, they are not bitter or resentful. In spite of all this they are like normal kids.” 


One of MUDAH’s instructors gave us a tour of their school. The teachers are basically volunteers, being paid 25% of what other Dominican schools pay (equivalent to $500 a month). She led us to a large cinder block building and explained through a translator how they were able to acquire this gift. A few years ago, a group of American volunteers and contractors visited this location and helped build these classrooms, a true step up from the tin rooms they had before. The classrooms had no lighting or A/C and the floors were made of dirt. The desks were worn and falling apart while their chalkboards were held up by chairs. The teachers were still grateful for these rooms and taught orphans, Haitian immigrants and children who were too poor to afford schooling in these buildings with pride. She showed us to a wall that was painted with the rules and values they wanted these children to live by. “I have a right to receive education, to have a name and a nationality, to respect my life and that of my family and our customs, to love and to be loved, to instigate and ask what I want and even to be wrong when I am learning” a few of them translated. The children read these rights out loud every day, like a pledge. Kids as young as two or three are taught these values because so many people have told they don’t deserve them, including the government. 


There were a couple of young adults who arrived to represent MUDHA, somewhere in their 20’s now but who were once students at this school. They danced and shared food with us and told us about the kinds of people they were able to grow into due to this nonprofit. Many were attending nearby universities and creating careers for themselves instead of falling into the trouble (drugs, violence, early pregnancy) other kids like them resort to. All Domican-Haitian children have this potential, but before MUDHA were not being given these opportunities. MUHDA is teaching these children to value themselves and their futures in the discriminatory system they live in. “What we are giving people, is dignity” Listian proudly told us. With this powerful mission they are extremely opposed by the government. “You can imagine if you are in a fight with the government, your life is in danger everyday. The government has said we are being watch. We walk around with a target on our backs.” Listian told us. MUDHA has successfully sued the government twice in the Dominican Supreme Court and plans to keep fight for human rights on their island. What started with five women, twenty three years ago, has grown to thirteen women, all standing up against their government to fight for representation and education for all children. 


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