Join us on a journey of hope

Una Vida seeks to create a positive impact in the communities we serve and fully immerse our participants into Dominican culture.  We create a reflective environment, giving our travelers the possibility to explore, intellectually and spiritually, while engaging with our local community.  By joining us in the Dominican Republic, we enable a journey of personal growth in addition to geographical exploration.

Most trips last two weeks, allowing volunteers to live with a Dominican family, participate in a mix of construction and development projects, and partake in local excursions.  Construction projects range from building latrines, replacing dirt floors with cement floors to building an entire home from the ground-up.  Development projects include work in the local library, in local schools, and in a nearby orphanage.

Our trips include time to explore the Dominican Republic, as we believe that our volunteers need time to rest and enjoy the best of what the country has to offer. We spend time in the Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo, Lake Enriquillo, and in the mountains bordering Haiti.  BHBH trips in the past have also incorporated visits to organic cocoa and coffee farms.

Traveling in Poverty

The Dominican Republic is a beautiful country with a vibrant culture and friendly population.  It is also a developing nation that struggles with poverty, human rights, and equality.  When traveling in the Dominican Republic it is important to remember things that are taken for granted at home– such as cold milk, a hot shower, or a municipal waste disposal system. Travelers to the Dominican Republic will notice a profusion of trash, a heavy military presence, and government corruption.  While these things can be shocking, they do not define the country’s identity, nor the spirit of the Dominican people.

For more on our thoughts about traveling in poverty, click here:

One of the things that people often find most difficult to face in developing countries is the overwhelming need of the people and their own inability to fix it. Here you are for a few days, eating at the same table with people who cook over a charcoal fire because they can’t afford a stove. Here you are sleeping next door to perhaps five children sharing one mattress. It’s easy to fix a few of those things. You can afford a pair of shoes for a child and you can afford a mattress. You can’t eliminate poverty, but you could make their lives better. So why not?

When you arrive in the DR, you will be asked for things. Locals will ask for your shoes, your bracelets, your clothes, or your cap. Children will ask for money. We ask that you give them something that is valuable but costs nothing: love and respect.