Fondo Grande, the Great Bottom

Cristino Alberto Gómez Luciano
4/08/2007
9:18 PM

Fondo Grande is a small rural community in Loma de Cabrera, Dominican Republic. The community has a population of 65 people, such a number that was higher in the past, but the migration has caused a notable reduction in the countryside's population. Most of the people who migrate to the cities or to other countries do it in seek of new opportunities to work, and a lower number to study, as a result of the difficulties to access to high education while living in the community. The closest high school is about 10 kilometers of distance, which most of the students have to walk. Later, the nearest university is in Dajabón provincial city, which Fondo Grande belongs to, 38 kilometers from the community, an enormous distance considering that almost half of the way is very difficult to transit and that people don't have the means to move there.

Despite the difficulties to progress, the Fondo Grande inhabitants don't lose their dream of a best quality of life. That optimism has allowed people to implement different projects to seek the common well-being for all of them. The most remarkable projects, which they achieved thanks to the action of Juan Pablo Duarte Farmers' Association (Asociación de Agricultores Juan Pablo Duarte), and "Hope and Friendship" Mothers' Center (Centro de Madres "la Esperanza y la Amistad"), include:

-the potable water installation in 1992 with the support of FUDECO (Foundation for Community Development), incorporated to International Save the Children Alliance,
-Lorena Stoves project, also with FUDECO
-Solar panels in 1997, with PROLINO (Northwest Line Integrated Rural Development Project).
-Agricultural projects for farmers

The newest project is the electrification through the installation of a hydroelectric power plant, which is programmed to conclude before the end of 2007.

Inhabitants and absent Fondo Grande-born people are actually planning to organize in order to make a net between the people in different regions of the country, or in other countries like the United States of America or Costa Rica. That net will have the aim of contribute to the Fondo Grande development from the place where the natives are.

Fondo Grande people continue working to reach their dreamed well-being for the new generations, because people are sure that a better world is possible.-