Esperanza’s programs are set up through our Integral Development Model (IDM), which consists of four strategic programs for human development and transformation: 1) Microfinance Services 2)Education and Vocational Training 3)Health Care 4)Community Development Esperanza focuses on long-lasting solutions that enable families to help themselves.
We focus on long-lasting self-help solutions centered around a microfinance program which equips the poor with financial tools to break out of poverty. The proven group lending model allows impoverished entrepreneurs, who do not qualify for traditional bank loans, to acquire much needed credit.
We then supplement this foundation of microfinance services with initiatives that improve education, vocational training healthcare and an integrated network of social services. Our four core programs in the model are designed to meet the most basic needs of individuals, families and communities. Results are immediate and dramatic. Families eat better, children are in school, health improves, houses are made safer, they dress better and have a positive outlook for themselves and their communities as their businesses become viable and they become economically self-sufficient.
Francesca proudly displays her business selling vegetables
The foundation of our Integral Development Model (IDM) is our Microfinance Services program, which consists of five components designed to sustainably improve the economic situations of impoverished families:
5th grade students at Milan Tapia's school in San Pedro de Macoris.
The root causes of extreme poverty go deeper than lack of capital. The poor need educational and spiritual training and encouragement. We currently have four educational components:
A dentist poses with a patient after a cleaning.
It is difficult for an entrepreneur to start and maintain a successful business without being healthy or with the burden of a sick family member. Most illnesses are preventable so in addition to providing basic preventative health education, we focus on the following areas:
Agua Bestesta water project, one of seven projects Esperanza supports.
Contaminated drinking water, lack of toilets and sanitation systems, make-shift shacks with dirt floors that fall like a house of cards during a hurricane, absence of recreational spaces to engage youth in positive activies….these are some of the typical community problems facing at least 55% of the Dominican population.
Our Community Development program takes a self-help and community-led approach, assuring sustainability and local ownership of both the problems and the solutions. Currently we engage in these areas: