Women lead development in Jarabacoa

[NewsWhore]

Esperanza Marte Victoriano is an everyday heroine. With her hands, her ideas and her sweat, she has fought the worst type of tyrrany: Poverty. Together with other women from Los Calabazos in Jarabacoa, she planted the seeds of a project, and little by little, built an eco-tourism venture, a hydroelectric plant and an aqueduct that benefits the whole community. "Opening the road" is how the rural folk say it, as green-eyed Esperanza shows the way to Canadian, German, US and other foreign tourists. Community leaders told Listin Diario reporters that, "in the month of August, we did not have a single hour with an empty room. The little cabins were full with groups from England". In a community where the people pay just 100 pesos a month for 24- hour electricity, the 365 inhabitants of Los Calabazos do not have to endure blackouts or pay fines from the very high rates charged by EdeNorte, EdeSur or EdeEste. The people of Jarabacoa are celebrating the town's 150th anniversary. There, in the distance, you can see the red tile roofing of the homes of the wealthy, the famous and the politically powerful. Far from these worries lives Esperanza, the lady who while leading the New Hope Mothers Club founded, together with other women, the "The Sound of the Yaque" Ecotourism Complex. The place is a path lined with wooden cabins and comfortable beds, close to the river that "babbles" just a few meters away. While the sun dries her hair up in rollers, Mari Claire de la Cruz, a lady of the future in the rural areas, tells how her house has a refrigerator, a blender and a water heater. The Mothers Club, with its original 18 members, is now 23-strong. "It took us four years to convince the men," she admits, "they did not trust the project, but we held firm." Very happy because the hydroelectric project founded in 2001 now lights 25 houses in Los Calabazos and the tourist project cabins, Esperanza Marte Victoriano is not afraid of standing up to the politicians who arrive every four years: "What have you done for us?" is her hello and goodbye.

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