Community Projects
While Yspaniola is predominantly an education-oriented organization, we also collaborate with Batey Libertad community members and NGOs to support the issues most pressing to community members.
Documentation Efforts & Human Rights Advocacy
While Yspaniola is an education organization, we collaborate with Batey Libertad community members, Dominican organizations, and international institutions to help prevent denial of documentation, deportations, and statelessness.
The background:
In September 2013, the Dominican Constitutional Tribunal ruled that citizenship was stripped from all Dominicans whose family members immigrated to the Dominican Republic after 1929. This ruling effectively denationalized hundreds of thousands of Dominicans of Haitian descent, including many residents of Batey Libertad. Deprived of their citizenship, members of migrant families can no longer attend college, work in the formal economy, open a bank account, or travel anywhere within the Dominican Republic.
After international outrage and mobilization by activists within the country and the Dominican diaspora, the Dominican government created an application process through which denationalized Dominicans could regain citizenship. The application is convoluted and expensive, making it highly exclusionary to any denationalized Dominican who does not have the means to pay for legal representation and other application-related fees. Furthermore, one can only begin the application after obtaining the proper identification documents from the Haitian government, yet another lengthy and expensive process. Those who are not able to apply for the naturalization and regularization plans are being constantly threatened with deportation.
To ensure that the Dominican government is notified of illegal human rights violations, we report all human rights abuses to Amnesty International, the UN, IOM, and the U.S. Embassy, all of whom maintain contact with the appropriate Dominican government offices. We have also opened up lines of communication with the Department of Immigration and the army in the Valverde area, hoping that increased visibility will help protect Batey Libertad from military raids, extortions, and deportations. Anyone who would like access to our reports on human rights abuses should visit the Incident Reports page or write to info@yspaniola.org.
EVERY HUMAN BEING
should have access to a strong and healthy community.
Waste Management and Environmental Project
As of Spring 2024, Yspaniola and the Batey Libertad community have been working on a Waste Management and Environmental Education Project to address some environmental issues impacting the Batey Libertad community. Through our work alongside a local environmental committee and help from our supporters, we have implemented a school garden project in Yspaniola’s preschool. In tandem with a nature-themed children’s summer camp, the garden project is part of a more considerable effort to include environmental education in the classroom.
With the implementation of these community gardening projects, we are also tackling issues related to waste management. Due to a lack of trash cans and regular trash pick-ups, waste piles up in parts of the Batey, mainly along riverbanks. Improper waste management has led to higher infection rates in the water, lower air quality, and increased prevalence of mosquito-borne diseases in the Batey, ultimately causing severe community and environmental health issues.
Yspaniola is working alongside a committee of dedicated community leaders and local governmental agencies to begin a comprehensive trash clean-up project; a trash can installation initiative, and educational programming to address these issues. For this project to create lasting and sustainable change, it must be driven and led by the community. As such, we are currently surveying, interviewing, and brainstorming with local community members to develop a thorough and practical approach to this project’s implementation.
Past Projects
- Water Access Project
- Latrine Project
- Menstrual Health Project in collaboration with CromosomosX
- Preschool Bathroom Project in partnership with B3
- Other relevant projects in collaboration with universities, NGOs, churches, and government agencies.