On Tuesday, February 18, at nine in the morning, Marcia's life changed.
While she was straining her coffee, they almost 'destroyed' her door by knocking on it. She opened it, ignoring what came next. A trail of soldiers, armed, hooded, and with a piece of paper in their hands that sentenced this Cabarete native, seller of chulitos de yuca, to vacate her house in a single hour.
Marcia, the one who built her little blue wooden house, with her own hands and that of her ex-husband, mother of 3 children, resident of the Cienega in Cabarete for more than 20 years, was taken from her house that morning, by the Ministry of Environment and other public entities, since the place where she lived in her home for so many years is a protected area.
But if you think this story can't get any worse, let me dismiss that idea for you right now: in an hour, she didn't have time to get her belongings out, she lost most of them. Today she lives rented in a neighbor's house... where the only thing she has not lost six months after this incident is the hope that the same government that stripped her of her items will relocate her to another "unprotected" area of Cabarete, so that she can continue “moving forward”.
There are no good or bad guys in this story. What there IS is people who want to help the 7 families that, like Marcia, the ministry evicted without relocating them, to date, in other spaces.
Cabarete Sostenible wants to help. Follow this link and sign the petition via change.org, to ask for support and add to our intention to give new homes to these families who have lost everything except hope.
We count on you.