ONE NEIGHBORHOOD
BIG IMPACT
Providing Opportunity for Self Improvement in Barrio Blanco Cabarete, Dominican Republic
OUR ORGANIZATIONAL GOAL:
To improve living conditions & individual lives within the geographic confines of Barrio Blanco, located in Cabarete, Dominican Republic.
To date, our generous donors have made possible:
*Completion of 54 homes replacing shacks often flooded.
*Providing work skills & employment opportunities
*Removing educational obstacles for the 350 Dominican and Haitian residents of Barrio Blanco.
Local TV Station Interviews Barrio Blanco Residents
ABOUT PROVIDING OPPORTUNITY
WHAT WE DO
Providing Opportunity is a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit. We use a comprehensive approach to help a poor neighborhood in Dominican Republic called Barrio Blanco.
Our initiatives include access to education, medical care, improved infrastructure, and social advocacy to empower residents.
Our goal is to remove obstacles that have kept these people in poverty and open new paths for success.
WHY WE DO IT
No one gets to choose where they are born, yet it determines everything about our quality of life. We believe everyone deserves a fair chance at success from their hard work.
WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT
Barrio Blanco is our adopted family. The closeness of our partnership has allowed us to have influence in the community in ways other charities can't.
100% of donor contributions go directly into Barrio Blanco. Our only paid staff are people who live in the neighborhood. All administrative costs are absorbed by the Board of Directors.
OUR STORY
In 2010 Providing Opportunity Founder, Ron Zauner, went to Dominican Republic for a vacation and discovered the community of Barrio Blanco hidden behind his hotel. Residents were living in inhumane conditions. All roofs leaked. Babies were sleeping on rotted, soaked mattresses on dirt floors, and there were only six bathrooms in the village of 300 residents. The existing homes were made of rubbish and the looming threat of eviction was ever-present. They were squatters.
Ron went door to door to ask all the residents how he could help. While the makeshift homes were the most obvious need to address, residents explained their biggest hardship was flooding when it rained; often reaching two feet deep inside their homes (click).
Community members described their dream of a safe, dry place for their babies to sleep.
Ron asked for a community meeting. He told residents if people where he lived knew about the conditions in Barrio Blanco, they would want to help. He made a commitment to tell their story.
This was the beginning of Providing Opportunity.
To date, we have built 54 new homes, a school, and a medical facility. If you visited the neighborhood today, you would be greeted with murals and flower boxes, not garbage or graffiti. Yes, you would see people living with much less than you have, but you would also see something very real in the eyes of the people of Barrio Blanco. You would feel it too-
It is HOPE.
Real, genuine, wholehearted hope.
