• Overview
• Objective
• FPSC and INDESCO
• Summary
• American Initiatives’ Involvement: How Your Donations Help
• Where We Want to End Up
• Supporting Haitian girls through scholarships in  the Dominican Republic
• Photos
• Videos

Country/ Geographic Area: Dominican Republic

Local Partner: INDESCO

Project Duration:  12 month

Overview

Although the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest economies in the Caribbean, the population living below the poverty line is about the 40%. The unemployment rate for women, especially in rural areas, is very high and the underemployment is a constant long-term challenge. This is why American Initiatives will work with Iniciativas de Educación Superior– INDESCO to help the poor women in Jarabacoa combat the primary structural problems. Many of these women have only a basic education and earn a low income which  presents a large obstacle to receiving a technical education, obtaining employment, or having access to the labor market. This project aims to improve the quality of training, employment and/or self-employment levels of these women. We aim also to assist Haitian girls by providing them scholarships in the Dominican Republic, the neighboring country, while their beloved country is under reconstruction.

Objective

To empower poor rural women in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, through training and developing skills in areas such as Gastronomy, Textiles and/or Housekeeping as well as business classes and an introduction to entrepreneurship.

Our main goals for this projects are:

• Dominican peasant women find themselves excluded from the job market.  Overall participation in the employment market in rural areas is 50%.  Of this share, 29% represents women; whereas the rate is double for men, amounting to as much as 68.8%.  In addition, there is a high rate of women dropping out of basic education which caused an exodus of women from the country to the cities in search of employment solutions and improved living conditions. Yet, they encounter another obstacle in possessing a lack of professional training for finding employment in industries where there are job opportunities.

• There is a shortage of permanent training centers in communities, and women do not have the income to afford the technical preparation that would train them for working in growing industries.

• Social and cultural barriers continue to have a negative impact on educational opportunities for girls and women. These barriers include difficulties in access to education for poor women. In spite of a rapid growth in female participation in technical-vocational training centers, women still remain a minority compared with their male colleagues, especially for the technical careers which are in most demand in the jobs market.

FPSC in Dominican Republic

Since 1996, FPSC has worked with INDESCO on four projects in the educational and microfinance sectors in order to promote the integral development of women and to contribute to the socio-economic development of families in the Jarabacoa area. In 2008 the construction of a technical training center began, and courses will  begin fall semester, 2010. This program incorporates previous experiences in the vocational training sector with modern methods of work implemented successfully throughout Latin America.

Summary

This project seeks to improve the quality of training in order to increase the employment and/or self-employment levels for women with low income in rural areas of the Dominican Republic.  It focuses on two specific areas:

• Construction of a vocational training center
• Training courses in Gastronomy, Textiles, and Housekeeping

American Initiatives’ Involvement: How Your Donations Help

We will partner with Iniciativas de Educación Superior(INDESCO) to provide funding for the construction and the implementation of the training courses.  Due to this intervention, it will be possible to contribute effectively in the fight against poverty in the Dominican Republic. Poor rural women will be able to discover and develop their potential to improve the quality of life for their families.

Where We Want to End Up

Our desired results for project completion are:

• Complete construction of Serranía Technical School Hotel and premises
• Enroll 200 women in Gastronomy, Textiles and Housekeeping courses
• Employ 150 women in the workforce