Brookfield Volunteers Plan Another Trip To D.R.

After the tragic quakes in Chile and Haiti, many Americans are thinking about volunteering on their vacations.  An organization in Brookfield, Cambiando Vidas (Changing Lives), has been organizing volun-cations to build homes in the Dominican Republic for over a year and is planning their 20th trip for this May.

Cambiando Vidas' director and founder Chris Goodrich joined Habitat for Humanity in 1999, however found that there wasn't any inexpensive land left for building in Brookfield.  "So we thought, if we can't build here, let's try another country," Goodrich explained.  Over the next seven years, Goodrich participated in a dozen trips all over the world and during one of those trips he met Jose Abreu, a volunteer managing the worksite.  "Jose said, 'We can do this better,'" Goodrich related, "We realized that if we get the communities involved we could have a house done in a week."

Goodrich and Abreu, along with six other volunteers, took their first trip down to a village outside San Juan de la Maguana in 2008, where, with the help of some 50 members of the community, they built a home in six days.  A year and a half later, Cambiando Vidas has finished their 19th house in villages surrounding San Juan de la Maguana and plan to build six more before moving on to the next locale.

Each home costs approximately $9,000 to construct, according to Goodrich, the bulk of which comes from the volunteers themselves.  Participants are asked to contribute $1,200 for the trip, which includes all in-country transportation, double occupancy lodging, three meals, activities, Medex insurance and donation for house materials (volunteers must procure their own flight to the D.R.).  The building materials are purchased in the Dominican Republic as another way of stimulating the local community. 

A team of 14 volunteers pays for the house completely, though Cambiando Vidas rarely gets that many people on a single trip.  The balance of the funding comes from private donations and fundraising in the U.S.  "We don't ask for money, we ask for bodies" from the locals, Goodrich said, "We provide organization, leadership, the first set of volunteers and the capital."

The program is not a handout, but rather a helping hand.  The new homeowners are expected to pay down the mortgage on the house, however the lien is held by Cambiando Vidas.  With no interest and seven years to pay it down, the mortgage generally costs the family $90 to $100 a month.  That money is then used for subsequent trips and, in one instance, funding for a pre-school in Charcas de los Garabitos, one of the villages on the outskirts of San Juan de la Maguana.

On average, the builds take eight days and run from Saturday to Saturday.  The next trip is planned for May 24-31.

"You think you're going to go and help somebody and you realize you're the one getting more out of it," Goodrich said, fondly remembering the sense of unity and community values he felt.  Goodrich recalled the story of a doctor who worked in the capital, San Juan de la Maguana, but was from one of the surrounding villages.  "He left to go into the city to work for a week at a time.  When he came back a week later, there was a house," he said.  The doctor had received his medical degree through the Dominican Army, which required subsequent years of service at a much lower pay-rate than a normal doctor.  Rather than lose such a valuable asset to the city, the villagers were able to give him a home of his own and a community to serve. 

"It's way more fun than going to Pompano Beach or wherever," Goodrich promised, "It's incredibly rewarding – people love you and you feel like a hero."