Trash solution for Cabarete and Sosua

[jackieboo]

Originally Posted by Rocky

I appeal to your good sense, and (hopefully) your confidence in my understanding of Dominican culture.

The approach you use for this project is critical.
Dominicans are extremely proud, to the point, that it could be called conceit.
They do not appreciate outsiders/expats/gringos making major changes in "their" country, be it for good or bad.
They do appreciate our financial aid.

The suggestions I made, with regards to putting the logistics of the operation, into some trustworthy Dominican hands, would ensure you maximum success.
If you were to be in charge of funding the operation, and perceived as the head of counsel, to guide the operation towards it's goals, whilst the Dominicans took care of "operations", I am confident that the program will be a winner and meet with long term success.

I know for a fact, that there are long term expats, just waiting to see your course of action, before making contributions.
It's a win-win situation.
Your job would be easier, the Dominicans would be happy, you would get both results, a clean up and a campaign against littering and you would also get more bang for your buck.

Again, the positive reply's are almost overwhelming, you guys are really pulling together and thinking of solutions, keep 'um comming.

Like a small child this project must take baby steps first. We need to decide on a name of the project seeing as the name will reflect on who WE are and where we plan to go.

The project is intended for Cabarete and Sosua so please keep that in mind when suggesting names. Eventually we'd like to spread the program to the entire north coast, but we have to start somewhere.

Addressing the 'scam' concern:

I understand that this is all happening rapidly and that in this world there are those that would take advantage of peoples good will for their own gain. As of this moment I have only taken good faith pledges, not one cent (centavo) of money has exchanged hands and nor will it exchange hands until we have a proper bank account set up and a system for account posting. This means that every month there will be a post here on DR1 and on our future web site documenting EVERY cent that is spent.

I want to have at least 5 members of a volunteer 'board of directors' that will work together in managing the in take and distribution of monies. That means if you're interested send me a PM......

Working with the local population:

We will NOT proceed without a plan of action that allows the local population to feel 100% included. Rocky has many good ideas and as we proceed we'll take his suggestions and others in to account.

Keep the ideas comming and NALs has volunteered to set up the voting thread so we can all vote on the name of the group early next week.

We're now up to $61,700RD in pledges!

Peace to all!

[Lambada]

Small suggestion and not to be taken as a voice of doom in any way. jackieboo, build into your preparations the psychological preparation for yourself and your fellow 'board of directors' as to what to do at the '3 steps forward 4 steps back' stage of the project. It will happen but if you're prepared for the reality of implementation here, it will be less of a problem for you.
Also, it's a bit more than 'allowing the local population to be 100% included'. The local population need to be the front-runners for it to succeed. If it appears that it was their idea, so much the better. Expats in the background, encouraging, motivating, raising funds, congratulating local participants on all the bright ideas they (the locals) are having etc etc. If you use Rocky's students idea, I would suggest at the first meeting you share what your vision is and then ask the students the best ways of going about it. In other words, you don't know, you need their help in getting this off the ground and then you need them to organise it because they know who is who etc. If one of them has some English maybe they could contribute to this thread to guide your thinking at the very early stages? Maybe even introduce the vision as one an elderly Dominican shared with you who would love to see this implemented before he leaves this mortal coil........?

What I'm suggesting isn't the obsequious use of humility so much as pragmatism. Would you agree with any of this, Rocky?

[Rocky]

Originally Posted by Lambada

Small suggestion and not to be taken as a voice of doom in any way. jackieboo, build into your preparations the psychological preparation for yourself and your fellow 'board of directors' as to what to do at the '3 steps forward 4 steps back' stage of the project. It will happen but if you're prepared for the reality of implementation here, it will be less of a problem for you.
Also, it's a bit more than 'allowing the local population to be 100% included'. The local population need to be the front-runners for it to succeed. If it appears that it was their idea, so much the better. Expats in the background, encouraging, motivating, raising funds, congratulating local participants on all the bright ideas they (the locals) are having etc etc. If you use Rocky's students idea, I would suggest at the first meeting you share what your vision is and then ask the students the best ways of going about it. In other words, you don't know, you need their help in getting this off the ground and then you need them to organize it because they know who is who etc. If one of them has some English maybe they could contribute to this thread to guide your thinking at the very early stages? Maybe even introduce the vision as one an elderly Dominican shared with you who would love to see this implemented before he leaves this mortal coil........?

What I'm suggesting isn't the obsequious use of humility so much as pragmatism. Would you agree with any of this, Rocky?

That is exacalacally it.
No better way to describe it, no better way to do it.
I would help, if deemed necessary, to recruit the right leaders, sit in on first meeting and introduction.
I expect Jackieboo would want to meet me first, to give me the agenda. so that although I would be translating for him, I would already know the base plan, and have explained part of it to them, so as to know that they were interested and anxious to get involved.
The only reason I proposed a leader's group of three, is because they are the only three who qualify, whom I know and trust, and trust is a big big factor.
Of course, I have not breathed a word of it to them yet.
Nobody likes disappointments.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by jackieboo

Keep the ideas comming and NALs has volunteered to set up the voting thread so we can all vote on the name of the group early next week.

Peace and goodwill to all (wo)mankind! . (I've never been a 'season' person, but somehow this festive season is getting to me)

Just to build a little on Lambada's ideas and having had a little experience, it would be a very good thing if the local organizers finally make the 'name' decision. It is a strange thing, but having been in similar processes, the 'naming ceremony' somehow is important. Once it is named, those that named it, are part of it.

Also, at the earliest possible, do a presentation 'bells and whistles' to all of the syndicos involved. Spend a little money on this ... go all out to 'win friends and influence people'. Expect nothing out of this (but listen closely to the comments!) Serve a few finger foods, a few sodas, make a magical presentation and then let the discussions begin.

[Snuffy]

Now Chris has been in business before...that is for sure. Damn, next time I need a promotion expert...Im calling you.

[jackieboo]

We are now at $76,700RD in pledges!!!

Keep it up!

Having read the last few posts I have to say you guys have moved in to high gear. Remember, we still don't have a name and we're working on our mission statement which will define who we are and what our goals are for the organization.

Maybe the following story will give some of you an idea of where I’m trying to go with this project.

In Phoenix, Arizona I owned a property on the edge of a Mexican barrio. We (my neighbors and I) had a problem with the gangs 'tagging' (graffiti) our property with spray paint. We had a neighborhood association that was very proactive and took up the problem with the local police and government. Eventually the city passed laws that limited the sale of spray paint to minors and kept the spray paint locked up so as to avoid theft.

Everyone was so proud of the laws that were passed and the association made up signs and distributed pamphlets with anti-graffiti information in Spanish and English. We organized school talks by ex-gang members and pumped money in to the local non-profit teen centers in the area.

A couple of months passed and there was no change, if anything it seemed that the problem had grown worse in our neighborhood. I finally had enough so I started painting over every tag I could find. Every morning I would go out in search of tags and paint over them. This continued for a couple of weeks, then one morning I went out and couldn't find any new tags. A week went by and no more tags, two weeks went by and I found one tag, I painted over it. It's been about a year now and maybe once a month the neighborhood finds a tag and paints over it.

The reason I shared this story is that I believe that a similar approach will work with the beaches and eventually our streets. We may have to clean and clean and clean but eventually the litters will see that they are littering on something clean and not just contributing to more litter. Also, once people see that there are waste containers that WILL be picked up regularly then they'll use those containers.

Education is also important. I was with a Dominican friend yesterday on our way to Santiago. At one point we stopped for some fresh fruit. After eating a banana I threw the banana peel out the window of the car. My friend had a fit and started calling me a hypocrite as I am starting an anti-littering campaign and here I was littering. I stopped the car and grabbed a banana and a plastic water bottle. I explained to her that the banana peel would be back in the ground in less than a week and that the plastic water bottle would be around for a thousand years. She just didn’t believe me. To her the water bottle and the banana peel were both basura and equal.

Keep the good work up and I have another update tomorrow.

Peace to all.
Jackieboo

[Lambada]

Originally Posted by jackieboo

Having read the last few posts I have to say you guys have moved in to high gear. Remember, we still don't have a name and we're working on our mission statement which will define who we are and what our goals are for the organization.

Indeed. I think some of us were suggesting the ongoing active contribution to ideas about this by the Dominican participants at this early stage, so that they are all part of the decision making processes. That way it becomes 'everyone's' mission statement rather than 'someone else's'. So don't worry if you haven't got a fully fledged mission statement - these things evolve over time. And don't worry if you haven't got a name. I liked Chris's idea of the local organisers making the final decision on the name. If you have suggestions for them to consider, they can either choose one of those or come up with their own name.

[rellosk]

Originally Posted by Rocky

They need only follow the system that was used in the 50's & 60's in America, with add campaigns (Don't be a litter bug), followed by posted fines for littering.
It will take at least 10 years, as it did there.

I agree, but who will pay for the campaign.

[rellosk]

Jackieboo, I applaud you for trying to solve a problem.

It would be good if somehow, some of the money could be used in educating the people not to litter in the first place.

[Keith R]

At Lee's request, this thread has now been made a sticky.

Keith, very happy to finally seeing DR1ers get involved on an enviro issue