Meet Two of Our Promoters from the Mixed Couples Project

The Mixed Couples Project (PPM), carried out by OBMICA with MUDHA, seeks to support descendants of mixed couples (Dominican persons partnered with foreign persons) in gaining access to their Dominican civil registration. We want to spotlight the promoters who make this work possible. Here we introduce two of our most valued collaborators.

When and how did you join the MC project?
JULIETTA: In 2017. It happened because we had studied here since we were little (at the MUDHA school in Palmarejo) and we used to attend the talks. During one of the selection rounds for promoters, I was one of the fortunate ones, one of the four chosen from my batey.
ROSA LIDIA: Through MUDHA. I was already collaborating with this institution when I learned about the PPM.

What motivated you?
JULIETTA: The situation that people born here in the Dominican Republic go through every day, when their own State refuses to recognize their nationality. Learning about the situations the community goes through affected me deeply.
ROSA LIDIA: Someone who lives in the community knows this problem. And I told myself: if I can help find some form of solution, I have to take part.

How important is human rights work in your life?
JULIETTA: Very important. In this country, 80 percent of the human rights of undocumented citizens, of the community I work with, are violated. They are children of Dominicans whose rights are not recognized. I have seen that reality, and it outrages me.
ROSA LIDIA: Very, very important. Because I like defending what belongs to us. I do not like leaving loose ends.

Before the project, had you done social work in the community?
JULIETTA: I had always been close to people working for the cause. PPM is my first formal experience, but before that I was, for example, with a colleague named Baniris, who is also in PPM.
ROSA LIDIA: I had been involved in social initiatives through, for example, my community neighborhood association. Later on, I became very involved in MUDHA's cultural group, where I am secretary. And I love it (laughs).

What is your most important memory from the project?
JULIETTA: When we get a positive result. Feeling that I am part of that successful help.
ROSA LIDIA: I especially remember those days during the National Plan for the Regularization of Foreigners. Many people anxiously went to Baniris, a MUDHA promoter, for help, even waking her up. The desperation was obvious.

What expectations do you have for the project?
JULIETTA: That MUDHA and the PPM continue helping young descendants of mixed couples and others born here who face documentation problems. Many of them grow up and sometimes cannot study because they lack documentation. It is unfair, and I hope we can continue collaborating.
ROSA LIDIA: That we can keep moving forward, finding more cases and getting them resolved.