2008 – 2009 Pruitt Minority Fellowship Recipients

Background Information

I am currently a graduate student in the Geography M.A. program at Hunter College, City University of New York. My interest in geography began when I was an undergraduate student at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC where I majored in Latin American Studies. My extended travel abroad experience includes five months studying in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 2001, and eight months living and working in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2002. 

My time in Argentina was spent teaching English, taking Spanish classes at the University of Buenos Aires and interning at Runa Huasi, a non-profit organization composed of professionals from distinct disciplines and organized into the areas of Indigenous Rights, Health, and Culture. I was also able to travel both to the south and the north of the country where I learned about the different populations of indigenous peoples. My time in the Dominican Republic as well as Argentina served as wonderful experiences and increased my familiarity with, and interest in, geographic, political, economic and cultural issues of the Latin American region. My internship research experience includes positions at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, Washington, DC, Conservation International, Washington DC, Innovest Strategic Value Partners, New York, NY, and The Network for New Energy Choices, New York, NY.
I would like to sincerely thank the Society of Woman Geographers for their support of my research. Without this generosity I would not be able to conduct the fieldwork necessary for my thesis on the topic of the participation of women in improved rural water supply services in the Hato Mayor area of the Dominican Republic.
Thesis Description
Due to the increasing awareness of the pressing situation facing the rural poor of the world, particularly in regard to inadequate supply of safe water, alternatives to the manner in which potable water is supplied to communities have been suggested and, in some cases, implemented. The Dominican Republic faces a water supply and sanitation problem which ranks as one of the worst in the hemisphere. The rural population in particular is in a constant struggle to survive without adequate access to safe water. In recent years, in response to this crisis, a new approach to safe water provision has been adopted.
My literature review work thus far has addressed the shift that has taken place from a top-down approach to water supply policy, planning, and management to a bottom-up, community participatory approach. I am examining both costs and benefits in order to demonstrate that, while advances have been made in safe water supply, improvement to policy, planning, and management schemes must continue. These improvements must be made with considerable attention paid to the critical need to maintain flexibility and to encourage cooperation amongst local, national, and international actors. I believe that while there is no such thing as a panacea, with the adoption of appropriate integrative practices, the basic needs of the most marginalized communities can be met.

The main objective of my thesis fieldwork is to evaluate the participation of women in improved rural water supply services in the Hato Mayor area of the Dominican Republic.
This includes:

• Assessing the extent to which communities, and women in particular, are participating in the management of water supply.
• Determining how the gender issue is addressed in the management of water resources.
• Assessing whether payments to water committees by water users being made.
• Determining the level of communication and cooperation between the local community, NGO’s and government.

I feel it is important that local community members feel their basic water needs are being met and that they have been adequately involved in all aspects of the project, from the first stages of planning, through the implementation, management, and monitoring. With the generous support of the Society of Woman Geographers I have been able to travel to the Dominican Republic and meet with NGO, government agency, and community organization leaders in the Dominican Republic in order to learn about specific Total Community Participation (TCP) projects in the Hato Mayor Region. I had the opportunity to meet with the USAID-Dominican Republic office in addition to other NGO’s that participated in the TCP projects including MUDE (Dominican Republic’s oldest and largest non-profit agency investing in women’s development and health), and FUDECO (Save the Children – Dominican Republic). These meetings gave me a wider perspective into the community-based water supply situation. My fieldwork so far has been fruitful in that I have learned a great deal about the process of developing a successful community-based improved water supply system as well as being introduced to the rural community members involved in the TCP water supply projects. Without the SWG Evelyn L. Pruitt National Minority Fellowship this fieldwork would not be possible. Thank you very much for your support!