By Marissa Doiron | Senior Advisor
On August 28 one of my favorite events of the year took place: Graduation of our newest Community Health Leaders.
We took our 9 graduates to lunch at a restaurant at the popular Taveras Dam, where many of the women have never had the means to visit, despite it being just a few minutes from Baitoa. The group shared a meal, most electing seafood – another special treat for them, then we handed out diplomas.
Afterwards, the class then surprised their teacher, Juana, with a plaque honoring her dedication to health education and empowering women. Juana was actually a student in the first cohort to graduate, and later became a teaching assistant for the course. In 2019 we promoted her, and Juana became the lead instructor - because of delays due to COVID, this is actually the first groups she's graduated!
Our younger graduates expressed their hopes that other girls will continue to enroll in the CHL course because they discovered the importance of learning how to prevent health problems, and they want their generation to be empowered with knowledge that their parents and grandparents didn’t have.
For many of the ladies, this was the first time they’ve been recognized formally for their hard work. In DR, it’s traditionally expected that women focus only on cooking, cleaning, and caring for children, and often they don’t receive the gratitude they deserve for their efforts.
All of our graduates have shown that they’re not satisfied with these social norms, however, and they’ve surpassed expectations to become leaders who are committed to improving the health and well-being of not only their own families, but of their entire communities as well.
We now have 68 women throughout Baitoa and La Vega inspiring others to empower themselves with health education, and we couldn’t be prouder of them all!
We hope to start a new cohort early next year, and we still have dreams of offering the course to a group of Haitian women, who are very excited about the opportunity. We would be supremely grateful for any extra support you could continue to give.
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