ProActividad

ProActividad para la Cooperacion y Desarillio or ProActivity for Cooperation and Development (ProActividad) aims to use tourism as a vehicle to achieve sustainable social and economic development for marginalized youth, and as a means of creating greater tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community through exposure to LGBT tourists from abroad. We work to support the productive sector in communi

ty based tourism for job creation and poverty reduction amongst disenfranchised young people living in towns with tourism potential in the Dominican Republic. In a country with a tourism driven economy, it is important for the benefits of tourism to be enjoyed as equitably as possible. This requires increased community participation and resource management. ProActividad is a social initiative created by the need to respond to a common weakness among NGOs, which is the tendency to rely on external funding. We aim to become self sustainable by generating income through the creation of social enterprises, which would enable us to have full control and freedom over our initiatives and goals. We work closely with poor, under-served and marginalized youth who have been denied rights to obtain social justice, reach their full potential, and be part of local movements. These youth are therefore at higher risk of poor sexual and reproductive health, particularly exposure to HIV, AIDS and STIs. ProActividad works towards targeting the structural drivers in order to prevent this through a number of avenues:

-Reducing the economic drivers that increase sexual risk behaviours by building life skills of youth and enhancing their employability through training.

-Creating employment opportunities and fostering entrepreneurship that develops income generating ideas and social enterprises.

-Documenting promising interventions, participating in advocacy work and looking for potential future areas of work.

-Changing social norms (gender inequality, violence, stigma and discrimination) to reduce high risk behaviours through communication. OUR WORK

ProActividad´s current projects are the ¨Tolerance Through Tourism¨ project, which focuses on training marginalized youth in the Dominican Republic to become leaders within their communities. Leaders who are able to utilize their training and skills to come up with entrepreneurial ideas within the tourism sector. Through this approach ProActividad aims to reduce the economic drivers that increase sexual risk behaviours of marginalized youth within the Dominican Republic. The establishment of an all inclusive travel company called All Included Travel aims to increase community based tourism within the Dominican Republic and is specifically aimed at LGBT tourists. Through providing LGBT tourists with specific tailor made package holidays that explore diverse areas within the Dominican Republic, communities outside the resorts are reached and explored, which brings in revenue and gives tourists an opportunity to see more of the country. It also works as a way to expose communities to members of the LGBT community; reducing stigma and discrimination through these positive interactions. The opening of a Cultural and Community Based Tourist Centre is being worked on for the coming year. This centre will be situated in the heart of the Zona Colonial district within Santo Domingo and will act as a base for tourists. Check out this for more information on LGBT in DR:http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/sites/default/files/dominican-republic-fact-sheet.pdf