Community-based vermiculture, gender, and alternative economies in informal settlements
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Abstract
In Los Platanitos, an informal settlement in North Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a lack of municipal solid waste collection services led residents to implement a pilot vermiculture project with a focus on gender. The main goal of the project was to reduce the amount of organic waste found in waterways that run throughout the community, and thereby reduce environmental pollution, improve public health and secure a source of income for women, the leaders of the project. The project is innovative in integrating culturally appropriate local technologies, building on gender and intergenerational strategies, and taking into account principles of economic sustainability. The project has established managerial and operational structures that strengthen organizational capacity and self-management with women in particular, but also in the community at large, demonstrating the positive impact that such projects can have on increasing social capital and community leadership for decisions that affect the daily lives of residents, in a time when institutional planning responds to a neoliberal political context.
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