NORDHOFF L.I.V.E.

After three days of service in the mountains, we traveled to the southeast of the country, to the agricultural region where sugarcane is produced. These sugarcane fields are traditionally harvested by Haitian migrants, who are lured and trafficked across the border by the sugarcane corporations looking for cheap labor. Once in the DR, the Haitians are stuck in worker villages known as bateyes, without clean water, plumbing, or any rights within the country. While we were there, we stayed at a volunteer center run by a nonprofit called ASCALA, which works to help these migrant workers gain access to healthcare, workers’ rights, and the documentation they need to live in the DR. We worked in a batey neighborhood called Monte Coca, which is home to about 1000 of these migrants. On our first day there, we mixed cement and laid a concrete floor in the home of a family of 7 who had been living on a dirt floor. Our second day there, we worked to lay the foundation for an outhouse for this family and a second family, who do not have indoor plumbing and until now, did not have access to their own bathroom or shower facilities.