The Dump

While in the Dominican Republic, I have spent a lot of time with refugees from Haiti. Particularly, the people who work in the Dominican dumps. A typical day for a dump worker would consist of beginning work around 7am, and finishing around 4 or 5pm. The workers spend the day collecting bottles – different colours, sizes, shapes are separated accordingly, although I have yet to figure out their system. For every giant bag they fill of bottles, the government pays them five pesos for that bag – which is equivalent to around 17 cents Canadian. On a good day, a worker may collect 4 or 5 bags. On a bad day, they might collect one. This is what that worker must live on to support their family. Less than 80 cents a day. How is it even possible to survive on this? I have been to the workers village, met their children and wives, and even attended their church service. The village is built up from scraps of anything they could find, and their daily source of food and water is non-existent. This is why we knew we had to do something. Although it’s extremely complicated to simply fix this problem, everyone can do something. So, during Hero Holiday, a team would go out to the dump everyday with fresh drinking water, knee high boots, and help collect bottles! I never thought that in my lifetime I would be picking through a dump in 40 degree weather with long pants on. However it was such an exhilarating experience. Each of us would work alongside our chosen Haitian partner, and just go at it. It got to the point where I was excited to see a bottle. It felt as though I had just won the jackpot if I found 3 or 4 at a time. In doing this, we helped to double or even triple our partner’s income for that day.
Everyone can do something – we can make a change.