Innovation brings opportunities for young people

The members of the Amiama Gomez Youth Group, also known as Innovation XXI, are using their initiative to improve their community in the Dominican Republic.

Amiama Gomez is a rural community in the southwest of the Dominican Republic. The local economy is based mainly on agriculture and fishing. There are few opportunities for young people to develop skills in other fields.

According to statistics offered by the community school, 15% of the adults that reside in Amiama are illiterate. Apart from the local schools, the community has no technical centres that could offer, for example, courses in basic computer skills.

In 2006, five young people from Amiama Gomez, along with a Peace Corps volunteer, started a group to push for improving conditions in the community in various areas such as health, education, the environment and sports.

At their first meeting they agreed to call the group Innovation XXI.

One of their members recalls, “A short time after that we participated in a call by the World Bank and the European Union to submit innovative ideas for community development and youth leadership.

“One of the requirements was that the youth group had to be supported by an institution that guaranteed the good use of resources, which is where Plan came in.”

Plan was immediately interested in supporting Innovation XXI, an excellent example of an initiative originating from a youth group and targeted at development and empowerment.

The group won the competition with its proposal for a Technological Centre with space for:

• A computer lab with Internet access
• A library
• A film projector
• A room for adult literacy classes, with an inverter so that the lack of electricity at night would not disrupt the classes
• A room for meetings and recreational activities

As well as winning funding from the World Bank competition, the group ran activities to generate income and used resources available in the community to contribute to the construction of the centre, which has now almost been completed.

Plan has provided training in resource management, and computers and internet service will be donated by Dominican telecoms company, INDOTEL.

The group is still gaining strength and now boasts 60 members from different areas of the community, of which 90% are active. Each member has the opportunity to express his or her opinions and to contribute to the achievement of the objectives proposed in the weekly meetings.

Leison Guerrero, one of the members of the group, says:

“As a result of my participation in the group I have been selected by Plan to participate as a volunteer in Panama in a program called Friends of the Americas.

“As a result of this experience I feel that I am a totally different person and more sensitive to those less fortunate. I have realised the importance of giving more value to what we have in our communities and the value of serving others.

“As young people, we now have more confidence in ourselves and better knowledge of our rights. We have made a commitment to make our community a place where people can live a good life with equality for all.”