All our Efforts For Villa Esfuerzo
A Dominican Proposal to the National and International Community
The International IAI Days (Santo Domingo, 18th – 25th April 2007) had a direct impact on the local situation due to the fact that they had as their base the city of Santo Domingo, where the European Colonization of the Americas began in 1492, as did resistance to it. It is the capital of the Dominican Republic, one of the countries with the highest percentage of people (more than 50% of the population of the city of Santo Domingo) living in insecurity and permanently subjected to forced evictions.
In the middle of these days, a concrete proposal was put forward and was subsequently discussed collectively: the agreement to launch a national and international campaign that aims to achieve a momentous collective triumph: the Reconstruction of the Villa Esfuerzo Neighbourhood.
What is Villa Esfuerzo?
The Dominican organizations of the Red Urbano Popular, COOPHABITAT and the IAI’s Zero Evictions Campaign call on community inhabitants’ organizations, rural organizations, unions, popular, professional and arts organizations, universities, NGO’s, ecological and feminist groups, altermondialist and municipalist groups, FAL , HIC , the DPU, COHRE, SELVIP, Grito de los excluidos, and AGFE. It calls on them and all those who participated in the International Days to unite for this campaign “All our effort for Villa Esfuerzo.” The event will be advertised in the programme for the Zero Eviction Days in October 2007 as an International Day for the Construction of Villa Esfuerzo and the Regeneration of the Neighbourhood with an Emphasis on Self-management, Mutual Help and Collective Property. The challenge is to reach the next Days having triumphed, having turned the discourse into concrete events that are the product of the coordinated actions of different international associations and leaders that have united to claim inhabitants’ rights to eviction free zones, towns and cities.