Hábitat Dominicana supports 5,700 vulnerable families during the pandemic

Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic has helped more than 5,700 people in different communities and provinces during the COVID-19 pandemic and the hurricane season. The organisation was able to reach thousands of families thanks to the generosity of individual and corporate donors and organisations who, moved by the needs of the most vulnerable, joined the “Housing, Communities + Hope” campaign.

Cesarina Fabián, director of Hábitat Dominicana, explains that “the call to stay at home is difficult in a country with 54.8% informal employment, where many families live in homes with qualitative and quantitative structural deficiencies, overcrowding and makeshift electrical systems, among other problems. In this situation, quarantine or lockdown is a frustrating and painful choice when you have to stay in a home with inadequate conditions”.

To ease this situation, Hábitat Dominicana reached vulnerable families in communities in San Juan de la Maguana, Azua, San Cristóbal, Haina, Samaná, Santiago and parts of Santo Domingo.

With the aim of ensuring everyone has a decent, healthy place to live, through the Housing, Communities + Hope campaign Hábitat Dominicana brought families hygiene kits for protection against COVID-19, resilience kits with key tools and a guide with instructions for strengthening their homes against hurricanes, as well as home repairs and improvements to boost market recovery and act as an engine of economic reactivation.

“The families reached by this campaign feel protected and have items that have become essential for protecting themselves and their relatives,” says Fabián.

Companies that made this noble cause possible included ADOCEM, Banco Múltiple ADEMI, the High-Level COVID-19 Prevention Commission via Alianza ONG, Dominican Watchman National, Grupo Ramos, Whirlpool and the Ponte Alerta Consortium (Plan International – Oxfam – Humanity & Inclusion – Ciudad Alternativa), along with public figures such as Ciudad de Ángeles, chef Leandro Díaz, Gary de Arriba, Miralba Ruíz, Pavel Núñez and Yadhira Pimentel, and the support of community leaders and church pastors, “who used their different platforms to echo our cause, move hearts and put God’s love into action through this aid”, listed the director.

Hábitat Dominicana continues its social work and its search for partners, individuals, companies and public figures who want to keep supporting communities, not only in responding to COVID-19 and the aftermath of the hurricane season, but also in reducing our country’s qualitative and quantitative housing deficit and continuing to work towards its vision of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

Hábitat Dominicana’s commitment doesn’t stop. “We will continue with projects to build new homes, adapting to the times, incorporating new construction technologies and access to housing microfinance, so that more families can build progressively or make improvements or repairs and have a safe place. We will also keep supporting families through training on important topics such as health, housing, healthy environments, economic recovery, and reducing and mitigating risks from vulnerabilities, among others,” says Fabián.

There are many families to help, so Habitat for Humanity Dominican Republic invites people to get involved and donate through habitatdominicana.org . To follow the campaign, visit its social media at @habitatdominicana.