Due to work on the FDR database of Peace Corps Volunteers that served in the DR that is being migrated to the NPCA site, you will not be able to register on our website or Login to the database for approximately the next 30-60 days.

If you have additions or changes to your profile in the database that you wish to be made, you can send the information to: membershipdirector@fotdr.org and the changes will be made for you.

We are sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding. Kim Herman, President, FDR

The Peace Corps office in the Dominican Republic (PCDR) continues to prepare for the re-entry of Volunteers into service in country. One of our goals to “Build Back Stronger” is to provide more support for volunteers of all identities. We are currently preparing an on-line portal for invitees to the Dominican Republic to access prior to staging and we want to include descriptions of service from different identity groups on the portal. These descriptions of service would ideally be former volunteers sharing stories, experiences and tips on what a new PCV can expect when serving as a Person of Color, an Asian American, an older volunteer, or as someone who identifies as LGBTQAI+, among others. This list of identities is just an example, other additional identities around nationality, ethnicity, religion, able-bodied, language levels, etc. are also welcomed and encouraged.

Our hope is that through these descriptions, new PCVs will have a better understanding of challenges and opportunities they may face and will help create a support network and foment allyship. We are reaching out to our RPCV community with the hope that you are willing to share your stories for this purpose. All RPCVs are welcome to respond, although we recognize that experiences from the more recent cohorts, 2015 or more recent, may have more relevance for our incoming PCVs.

What would these descriptions look like? Perhaps the ideal medium would be short (1-4 minute) videos. However narrated PowerPoint presentations, voice recordings or short essays may also be submitted.

Our goal is to have this portal up and running by late summer. If would like more information or would like to participate, please contact the PCDR Training Director, Tim Kiefer ( tkiefer@peacecorps.gov) or our PCDR Equity, Diversity and Inclusion working group EDI (DO-TodosSomosEDI@peacecorps.gov).

Thank you in advance for your help and support, Tim Kiefer.

Overview

Friends of the Dominican Republic (FDR) is a non-profit corporation created to continue supporting Peace Corps' work in the Dominican Republic (DR). We summarize our work quite simply.

We are a "cyber-based" membership organization of former and current Dominican Republic Peace Corps Volunteers, staff, and supporters. Our Members:

• Raise funds to support the work of current Volunteers in the Dominican Republic,
• Advance the Third Goal of Peace Corps bu sharing out knowledge of the Dominican Republic with other Americans, and,
• Foster "connectedness" by growing our membership network to provide news and information about Peace Corps DR and encourage participation in and support for their work.

For 2019 we continued working on our strategic goals:

• Goal 1: Focus on Organizational Sustainability
• Goal 2: Strengthen Core Programs
• Goal 3: Increase Membership/Supporter Involvement

FDR's Significant Accomplishments in 2020

• Among the ten grants awarded by the Community Challenge Fund for a total of $37,468, were six grants for pandemic relief and installation of hygienic handwashing stations to 2 non-governmental organizations in the Dominican Republic.
• The Program Support Fund provided five grants for a scholarship, youth business development, pandemic relief, and support for the last issue of Aplatanow, the Volunteer publication, for a total of $10,725.
• The Growth-Professional Development Committee developed and presented six webinars on the pandemic response, applying for work, working for large and small NGOs, Non-Competitive Eligibility for federal employment and applying to graduate school for Evacuated PCVs and RPCVs; and restarted our Mentoring Program for recent RPCVs.
• The History Committee wrote and published a 20 Year History of Friends of the Dominican Republic that can be found on our website at https://fotdr.org/Portals/0/documents/History/Full-20-Year-History-PDF.pdf
• The Board determined to continue our Third Goal activities in cooperation with the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) rather than have a separate committee.
• We published six issues of our electronic newsletter, La Voz, and a special message from Peace Corps-DR Country Director, Jennifer McGowan, bringing members up to date six months after the evacuation of Volunteers from the DR and the COVID19 response in the DR.
• We began work on the planned transfer of FDR's website from an independent host to the NPCA Silkstart platform for affiliate organizations.
• Thanks to a generous bequest from deceased DR-RPCV Thomas Powell (Agriculture and Business Development-1990-1992) we created an investment fund to support future Program Support Fund activities.