ART Photos: Bryan Davies HH
TRAVEL //VOLUNTOURISM
Travel with a purpose “Voluntourism” is one way that travellers can have a meaningful impact—if done right, such as this locally based project for the Dominican Republic. BY LAURIE STEPHENS
S
OMETIMES, IT’S SMALL THINGS
that make a huge difference. To displaced Haitians in the impoverished villages of the Dominican Republic, a water filtration system. Or safe electrical power so that children can read at night. Or a doctor’s office with a refrigerator to store insulin. It may also be something as simple as showing you care.
“Everything that we do has to come from a sustainable approach. We learned over the years that we need to have a focus that is going to make a longlasting change.” In the small village of Lomas Blancas, about 50 ancianos—the original sugarcane cutters who migrated from Haiti in the 1960s and then lost their livelihood when the sugarcane companies left the Dominican—didn’t know how to write their names. “So, the exercise when we went there was, ‘What is your name, we’ll show you how to write your name’,” says Steve Wallace, a member and past president of the Wasaga Beach Rotary
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SUMMER 2022 ON THE BAY
Club. “I couldn’t believe the smiles and the squeals of excitement and joy.” Wallace, 66, is the founder of the Rotarysponsored Hispaniola Humanitarian and Relief Team (HHART). Over the past 12 years, he has recruited dozens of South Georgian Bay volunteers to spend one to three weeks of their vacation time in Dominican villages—called bateyes—that lack even the most basic services we take for granted. Villagers live in cramped, barrack-like shacks made of wood, concrete and tin. Roads are typically dirt paths, and electricity and clean water are in short supply. Wallace, a former Canadian Air Force and Air Canada pilot, led the first HHART service trip in 2010 to bring medical and dental services to the vulnerable population. “We brought a little bit of medical expertise, a little bit of dental expertise, and we actually did surgeries,” he said. “I had bought a mobile dental kit, so it had a drill, a light, and it had suction, and we were off and running.” Since then, HHART has made lasting improvements to the region’s healthcare. The best example is the Amigitos Community Centre that is run by the Norwegian charity Amigitos in Batey Pancho Mateo. The Centre
TOP Dr. Jennifer Simpson, 47, of Huntsville. MIDDLE Making a difference in the Dominican Republic. ABOVE (L to R) Jonathan, Reg and Steve Wallace of HHART. Voluntourism is a family affair.
has become a community hub that includes medical and dental clinics, a children’s play area, and a large kitchen used for delivering food programs for seniors and kids. Over the years, HHART has helped fund equipment for the clinics and promoted the training of locals to work in the Centre; it has completely outfitted the doctor’s office with an
