Global Studies Program
Dominican Republic Service Trip
In the fall of 2019, I went on a service trip with my school to the Dominican Republic. The Dominican Republic has a very agricultural-based economic system. Most of the world's sugar cane is produced here. Many of the people who work on the sugar cane bateys are immigrants from Haiti. They are paid very low salaries and have very little access to healthcare. When they arrive in the DR their visas and papers are taken away by the sugar cane field owners. If they leave the batey's they could be deported back to Haiti. Ultimately, they become trapped in the batey's.
During our time in the Dominican Republic we donated shoes and hygiene kits, built houses for the workers and their families, and ran medical clinics with doctors and nurses in multiple batey's.
I loved and learned so much in the Domicinican Republic and I know I want to do that again. Before the trip I learned alot about the Dominican Republic but being told about something cannot even compare to actually going to that place and experiencing it. It was an incredible experience to be able to see the results happening before my eyes. Seeing a family handed the keys to their new home or a child getting the medicine they so desperately needed made me realize that I wanted to do this again. When I am older I want to be a doctor. I want to travel around the globe and help people that cannot get help otherwise.