Batey Rehab Project
THE STORY OF BRP
In 2009, BRP founder and Executive Director traveled to the Dominican Republic for the first time to begin working on her Masters of Architecture Thesis project. While conducting her thesis, she began to realize how much aid was lacking within the housing sector. How could people build faster, affordably and sustainably? This is where the foundation of BRP was laid.
In 2013, BRP was founded, and they quickly realized that they were designing and building much more than just four walls and a roof, they were creating homes, designing for families. Over the next few years they worked solely upon the creation of homes within the region of Barahona, quickly reaching over 25 homes in less than 2 years. In 2015 they decided to begin working within a new community called Milton. This community was far from the Bateyes but close to their home in Barahona. The need in this community was overwhelming, but they believed that they could continue with their work and build homes for the many families in desperate need. Upon building their first home in this community, what they discovered was far from the creation of a home, but children trafficked by their father.
For that very reason the founders of BRP decided to try and find a solution to help these young girls, but what they uncovered was the horrific statistics of a country that lacked every resource that victims were in need of. Victims and cases were everywhere, but yet no organizations were tackling the issue of human trafficking and domestic violence in these communities. Over the next two years stopped its work to purely focus on helping the countless women and children who were victimized by these horrific crimes.
How could we just simply continue building homes and pretend that we did not witness these humanitarian crimes? I made a decision that day that we simply could not stand by, but our work had not ended, it had really only just begun. We had no idea what we were doing, but we figured it out along the way. What BRP became was something I never imagined possible."
Katie Godkin Morales, Founder
Our solution was to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty, two generations at a time. In order to do so, we had to focus on building out a program that facilitated an entirely holistic response to rehabilitating the lives of these women and children. From shelter, to education, to health and hygiene, to employment, to security, we have been able to empower these women and children in a program that has not only provided freedom, fought for justice, but has simply loved them each and every day. As we continue upon our new found mission, we build towards a future that provides sustainable holistic care to women and children in the Dominican Republic.
Thank you to everyone who helped me with a donation or a word of support. In a matter of 5 days we built a community kitchen for the Los Robles village in Barahona, RD. The work done during the trip was a blessing for the entire community. It was a 12 x 12 ft kitchen for the use of approximately 200 people - and they were beyond happy. If we all stop for a moment and look around us, we would realize how little we help others. I can assure you that your problems today are not so bad compared to what others have to face.
Stephany Knize, volunteer