Good Neighbors Dominican Republic

Committed to enhancing organizational performance, Good Neighbors Dominican Republic prioritizes expanding social impact activities targeting children and communities through strategic partnerships with key Dominican actors and international collaborators. Therefore, we focus on developing transformative and innovative actions to improve the quality of life for children as follows:

• Education: We ensure people enjoy the right to education. Currently, we provide children with access to virtual classes and materials, educational support programs, and training for educators and parents. We have established four Community Educational Centers (CECs), where one of the centers has graduated 40 students from office software classes, boosting educational opportunities in our communities.
• Health: We improve accessibility to health facilities and enhance community nutritional status. We support children, families, and vulnerable communities with health materials and health fairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health. We implement the Sexual and Reproductive Health project with the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to prevent adolescent pregnancy. We also promote nutrition education and home vegetable gardens for sustainable food sources.
• Water and Sanitation: We improve community accessibility to water and sanitation facilities. In our community interventions, we implement health education programs on water consumption and sanitation for children, their families, and the wider community. We promote water from the water plant and conduct bathroom repairs to enhance local sanitation and community health standards.
• Income Generation: We enhance the social economy system through a new social business model. To maintain a thriving socio-economic system, we prioritize continuous research and development through initiatives, including the microfinance institution (FONDECO) and the social enterprise (EOLA). We strive to explore new business projects, design innovative products and services, showcase social enterprises to potential partners, and expand the community development fund through FONDECO to cooperatives beyond our geographic operational areas.
• Advocacy: We ensure children and adults are aware of children’s rights. Our innovative actions include annual media campaigns, collaborating closely with the Children and Adolescents National Council (CONANI) in the Dominican Republic to promote children’s rights, and raising awareness through educational capsules at Community Education Centers (CECs). These efforts aim to empower communities and ensure children’s voices are heard and their rights upheld.
• Emergency Relief: We improve awareness of disaster risk management. Our interventions in disaster risk management include workshops for children and adults, promoting preventive measures in collaboration with institutions including Civil Defense and the Emergency Operations Center (COE). We distribute survival kits and train personnel on emergency response, ensuring communities receive vital information to effectively navigate natural disasters.

Our actions and interventions in the communities where we work are strategically aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Overall, we contribute significantly to five of the 17 goals, with our primary focus on SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDG 9 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 10 (Sustainable Communities), and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).