Life On The Other Side

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, March 2012. 

My first contact with these amazing people was made through the Colette Lefort foundation, which finances the school. This school and the "soccer playground" are located in the "Los Domingues" neighborhood. The youngest child studying in this school is three and a half years old and it goes up to nineteen. The next door beside the school is the office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which provides help to the migrants who require international migration assistance.
The homes of the families are located in different neighborhoods: "Aguas Negras" and "Pelegrino". Every house I had the chance to enter had about the same room arrangement, a living room separated from the bedroom with a curtain. Some are made out of sheet steal, some out of wooden boards and for the most fortunate, they are made out of cinder blocks. The entrance door was always open, at least a little bit, and the window shutters always closed, which gives them a very dark environment but helps with the very high outside temperature.