How an Irish Man does the Dominican Republic.

So I let Peter go to the Dominican Republic on one condition..he HAD to write something about WHAT he was going to be doing there for me to post on the Blog.  I mean I'm sure I could rattle some words off and write up something that may match up with his schedule while there, but figured it would be best to come from the man himself.


So as I have written before, Peter works for an organization called Children of the Nations (aka COTN).  They do all sorts of things such as child sponsorship, feeding programs, children's homes, schools, trauma counseling, and most recently microfinance.  And considering I left soo many things out you should click HERE to find out more about what they actually DO and HERE to find out what Peter actually does.  So they are based in the Dominican Republic, Uganda, Malawi, Sierra Leone, and more recently Haiti and Liberia.  And Peter is in the Dominican Republic - to learn more about what they do there click HERE.   So Peter's first report from the DR...here it is folks.

I am in the Atlanta airport, on my way to the Dominican Republic (DR).  This will be my third time on the island Columbus mistakenly thought was India!  It has been a crazy year, since I was last in the DR I have traveled to Uganda, Malawi, Ireland (home) and now we are in the thick of a first time home purchase.

The last time I was in the DR we were dreaming up a microfinance project, and now I am visiting to document the existing and operational microfinance project!  This project has so far given out 10 loans, with 10 more to come as well as an additional 20 beyond that.  And that is just in year one.

One of the goals of this trip is to discuss the future of our partnership with Esperanza (an existing organization in the DR that does microfinance).  We will also be interviewing the clients who have received loans and capturing how their lives have been changed since getting a loan.  I will also be doing further survey work on a future Water, Sanitation and Hygiene project in the batey of Altagracia.  We will be testing the water, mapping latrine locations and speaking with the local community.  All to help us create an effective, relevant and life changing project.

We will spend 2-3 days in Santo Domingo, the capital, in meetings and then head to Barahona (where COTN operates) for the rest of our trip.


So there ya have it..just a little brief synopsis, and I feel like I should be explaining so much more of it all, but maybe i'll leave that for another post on another day!  I just have to say I am so proud of my husband and the work he is doing with COTN!!  And I am super excited about the microfinance program Peter spearheaded and saw through to fruition and can't wait to hear about how those loans are already changing lives!! 


Please let me know if you are interested in hearing more about COTN, and also let me know if you are interested in donating to the cool work Peter does and/or the microfinance program in the Dominican Republic.