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Villa Altagracia – Apparel Factory & Workers – Day 4
The day began with three generations of the Hodge family, 11 of us, and luggage, crowded into a mini-bus for a two and a half hour trip from La Romana to Villa Altagracia in San Cristobal, located outside of Santo Domingo. The driver had an interesting approach that included driving ten miles in the wrong direction, slowing down on open highways and speeding up in crowded city streets. Oh well.
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Our Visit to Hogar Niños de Cristo – Day 3
Today, we spent the day with 36 boys and young men who now call Niños de Cristo and their dedicated staff their home. We were joined by Donnie Hodge and his wife Ana. Donny is the owner of Altagracia Apparel. I’ll write more about this tomorrow after we visit his “fair wage and working conditions” factory in Villa Altagracia and talk with some of the families whose lives have been changed because of these jobs. Sadly, some children cannot be raised and nurtured safely with their own families for many different reasons. Niños de Cristo provides the “family” for about 40 of these youth in the Dominican Republic. This…
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Our Visit to the GOYA Plant in Santo Domingo – Day 2
Our generous partner in feeding hungry New Yorkers, GOYA Foods, invited us to tour its plant in the Dominican Republic. This provided an opportunity to see one of their busy factories that employs about 500 people. In addition to seeing the hard working men and women on the floor of the plant we also met the factory administrators. We also saw the finca (land) where gauyabas (guava) are grown. I was accompanied on the tour by the director of quality control, a chemical engineer, charged with complying with regulations of both the Dominican Republic and the United States. He said most of the product from this factory is shipped…
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Catholic Charities Joins Goya Foods and Maestro Cares in the Dominican Republic – Day 1
In partnership with Goya Foods and Maestro Cares, singer Marc Anthony’s non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of life for orphaned children throughout Latin America, Catholic Charities visits the Dominican Republic to learn more about the children and the work of Maestro Cares. Msgr. Kevin Sullivan illustrates his first day on the island. Stay tuned throughout the week for more updates from the trip. Listen Now
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Take A Step Back This Summer
These are very good weeks to remind others and ourselves that society is broader than government and politics. Sometimes rather than engage its best to “shake the dust from our feet.” There is plenty of room and need to concentrate on family, work, self, friends, relationships and anything or anybody that can advance love, faith, peace, hope, reconciliation, goodness, growth, happiness, etc. You get the point. We can’t always avoid confronting what is wrong, yet, sometimes the best approach is to pause, take a step back, not get caught up in the nonsense and possibly risk the contamination of distraction from what is really important. I’m thinking this is one…
