User:WagenerLaura/sandbox

Feedback:

I would really appreciate some feedback on writing style. I feel like some of my sentences are a little boring, and may seem a little preachy. If there are areas of confusion, please point them out! I know I need more direct sourcing, as my article seems a bit like an orphan at the moment, so if you have suggestions on that I would really appreciate it. Also, when I did the lead paragraph, I had mentioned the transition from communism to democracy. Should I talk more about that in the main article? I guess I thought I could find more information on that topic than I did. Thank you for your help!

 Project Proposal

For my Global Youth Studies article project, the topic I chose was the Youth in the Dominican Republic. I chose this topic because I spent four months in Santo Domingo earlier this year, and I would love to do more research on the youth culture there. There is no existing article on this, so I will be creating this page throughout the rest of the semester. Although I spent my time in the capital city of the country, I would like to further explore other areas of the country, including youth in rural areas and how their location affects their growth and development intellectually. I would also like to explore how the recent hurricane in Haiti impacted the lives of those living in the Dominican Republic, as immigration laws have gotten more strict since the natural disaster. Among these topics, I hope to look into labor and profession as well.

For my lead paragraph, I plan on incorporating all pieces of my articles into a broad summary. This will give the reader an idea of what the article is about along with some background on the country. I will start out with demographics of the Dominican Republic, specifically the youth population. Then I would like to give some background on the government of the country. It started out as a strict Dictatorship and has since transitioned into a Democracy. After this, I would like to talk about education and how many children have access to education, especially when looking at the undeveloped areas of the country. From there, I will attempt to look at the employment statistics for youth, and possibly even the overall rate of poverty in families. As a biology major, I would like to end the article talking about their healthcare and diseases commonly seen in youth.

As far as sources go, I have found multiple articles about the health care in the Dominican Republic, specifically on diseases such as HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. Seeing as there are many sources on this topic, I intend on exploring this area more than I was originally planned. There was also an interesting article about suicide in Dominican youth, talking about the causes and stress seen among the age group, which I thought was also very interesting. Articles on the government also exist; talking about how the end of Rafael Trujillo's rein changed the country tremendously, both in labor markets and ideologies as a whole. In the next week or so, I will be looking for more education articles. I would love to compare the role of education in rural areas versus urban areas, and how families view education in general. If these topics become too much, I will narrow the search down to around three areas, and explore those. 

Rough Draft

Young girls in a public park in San Jose de Ocoa, Dominican Republic.

Youth in the Dominican Republic constitutes just over thirty percent of the population in 2008. The Dominican Republic's population at roughly eleven million people has grown tremendously with the help of the youth population. In 1960, the youth population was at 3.3 million, and by 2008, it had reached 9.5 million, with two thirds of them in urban areas of the country.

Although the Dominican Republic transitioned from a communistic government to a democracy in 1962, many inequalities in the form of education, employment, poverty and health are still apparent and affect youth today.

The Dominican Republic is the only country that has a youth-only secretariat. In 2000, the country approved its General Youth Law, which allocates a budget of 1 percent of the national budget for the youth secretariat. The law helps with youth development programs that promote education and development. The country also has multiple governmental laws that protect minors younger than eighteen years old from being arrested, legally processed, and going to jail.

Education

The standard of education in the Dominican Republic is low. Basic education enrollment is high (89% in 2008-2009), but 22,000 youth ages 10-14 remain out of school. Secondary enrollment is drastically lower (50% in 2008-2009), as some youth face different constraints to accessing education at this level. Around 55% children and adolescents do not attend school because their right to enter the system is denied. This restricted access to education affects children who do not have documents, which mainly includes children who were born in the country to undocumented Dominican parents and children of Haitian parents.

Since Haiti is also on the island, there is a reoccurring problem of illegal migration into the Dominican Republic, which increases the youth population in the school systems. This was seen immensely after the Haiti hurricane of 2010, which killed over 200,000 people. After the hurricane destroyed much of the Haitian side, families migrated for a new beginning.

A typical group of Dominican children at primary school.

Overcrowding and repetition of material is a major problem in schools, especially in urban settings. In public schools with 500 students or more (accounting for 68% of total enrollment), the student-teacher ratio is 78:1. This can severely hamper the teacher's capacity to address individual students. Repetition can also be an issue in the schools, as the children learn the same topics repeatedly. This is seen in the fact that children spend almost ten years in school, but make progress very slowly through different grades. The average estimated repetition rates for the first three grades are 12.4 and 7.7 percent in both urban and rural areas. Teachers can be teaching class, but may only understand around 40% of the material they are supposed to be teaching. Studies have been performed showing that better schooling raises worker productivity and improves labor market outcomes in the long run.

Over the past few decades, the government has engaged in multiple reform efforts to improve the education level of its citizens.The General Law on Education, passed in 1997, guarantees the right of all the inhabitants of the Dominican Republic to education. Although education is provided, youth still have a hard time with reading and writing. In 2008, more than 23,000 youth ages 10-14 and nearly 25,000 youth ages 15-19 characterized themselves as unable to read or write. Between the ages of 20-24, more than 44,000 were unable to read or write.

 Employment

You face even greater difficulties than adults in entering the labor market and have unemployment rates considerably higher than adults. In 2008, youth ages 10-24 represented a fourth (24%) of the total labor force in the Dominican Republic, and 43% of the total unemployed population. Unemployment in the Dominican Republic appears to be in a slight but steady increase of 14.3 percent since 2010.

Gaps exist between the needs and services available to youth in the Dominican Republic. These gaps include an unbalanced market supply and demand, which is caused by the limited number of jobs available to young adults in the job market. There are skill gaps between opportunities available and the youth seeking them, as many of the jobs are too complex for youth just out of high school or college. Youth in the Dominican Republic also have a lack of experience and have little or no counseling services to direct them on where to go to get their career started.

Agriculture is the primary source of youth employment in rural areas while wholesale and retail trade is the primary source of youth employment in urban areas. Over 75 percent of the youth labor force is concentrated in five activities: wholesale and retail trade, other services, manufacturing, hotels, bars and restaurants, and agriculture. Self-employment is also a popular option among all age groups in the Dominican Republic. It has increased from 34 percent in 1991 to about 43 percent in 2011, leading to a measured increase in familiarity and comfort when working. The labor force participation is lower among young women due to gender stereotypes, which causes them to rely more on self-employment. In 2007, the average wage for women was 87 percent of the average wage for men.

Programs are available to youth trying to find employment. One example is "Quesqueya believes in you" or NEO in the Dominican Republic, which is a program designed to increase job opportunities for low-income people, aged 15-29, living in urban areas of thirteen of the country's provinces. Another example is Espacios para Emprender (EpE), which is designed to equip 14-17 year old adolescents with the strategies required to find a job or establish a micro-enterprise. There are also set policies that help youth improve their creative and innovative skills for the workforce and reducing barriers that could limit their access to the labor market. These policies are responsible for detecting and removing children from child labor, while also ensuring compliance with labor rights.

 Poverty

Poverty in the Dominican Republic has never gone away. In 2011, poverty levels were around 40.4%, compared to 32% in 2000. The scarcity of resources can push young people into unsustainable and dangerous survival strategies. This catalyzes the establishment of criminal and violent neighborhoods and furthers the negative development trends in the country.

Youth living in poverty is often overburdened because work and education is combined early on in life. For a majority of youth, migration has become a way to survive poverty. Youth often think relocating to a larger city would benefit them and provide more opportunity in the work force, but they usually end up returning to their home town. The Dominican Republic suffers from extreme inequality and is known for its gapping divisions, where there are enormous gaps between the rich and the poor. Only 2% of the entire population has moved up to a higher income group.

Poverty produces unprotected youth and impacts their overall development as individual citizens. In Latin America and the Caribbean, it is estimated that over 50 percent of the population between 12-24 years is at-risk in participating in illegal and dangerous activities.

Youth in the Dominican Republic can find a sense of social support in gangs. Youth in poverty can be excluded by the wider Dominican society, and gangs are sometimes the only option of acceptance. In the 2012 Latin American Public Opinion Project survey, the Dominican Republic was ranked first of all the Latin American countries, as 48.6 percent of neighborhoods reported to being affected by gangs. For many young people, a gang is a social participation space, a system of values in which individual and group identities are affirmed through new communication codes and forms of authority that are different from those that exist in the world of formal institutions. Youth oftentimes have chances to start over, but end up doing drugs or fighting out of "boredom".

 Health

In the Dominican Republic, the population ages 15-24 are documented as the healthiest age group. However, youth still face challenges to receiving care and health-related education. One issue in the health sector is sexual health. Sexual health education is needed because Dominican youth have been reported to start having sex at a very young age. In 2007, 15 percent of females and 24 percent of males ages 15-24 reported have their first sexual relation before age 15. The proportion of youth who have sex at a young age was inversely related to both education and income. Youth that were sexually active early in life had dropped out of school earlier that those who had waited to engage in sexual activity.

In 2007, fewer than half of the female population that were sexually active used contraception. Because of the limited use of contraception, the Dominican Republic has one of the highest HIV/AIDS rates outside the country of Africa. Females are more susceptible to HIV and AIDS given that they are more likely to engage in commercial sex work compared to males.

The Code for the System of Protection and Fundamental Rights of Children and Adolescents guarantees the rights to health and health services for children and adolescents. The General Law of Health ensures that these rights are preserved, especially for children under 14, women, those living on and under the poverty level, senior citizens, and the disabled.

Alcohol and drug use is another problem that exists among Dominican Republic youth. In 2007, 82 percent of males ages 15-19 and 73.5 percent of females reported having consumed alcohol sometime in the prior three months. Although the legal drinking age is eighteen, young adults begin consuming before that.

A young Dominican boy stands with the flag of the Dominican Republic.

Youth Policy and Law

Youth in the Dominican Republic face numerous challenges to participating fully and positively in society. There is a Ministry of Youth as well as a General Youth Law of 2000 that pinpoints Youth Civic Participation as an important part of promoting youth development and well-being. In addition to its Youth Law, it also has a national education-based policy that requires high school students to complete sixty hours of service as a prerequisite of graduation.

In the 2008 presidential election, young adults exhibited dramatically lower voting rates than older age groups. There is a Law for the System of Protection, which regulates the treatment of minors from birth to age 18. This law states that children under the age of 13 are not criminally liable, while youth ages 13-18 are.

The electoral participation rate in the Dominican Republic is higher than the Latin America average, as over 77.3 percent indicated they had voted in the last election. Although that is a greater percent compared to other countries, there still is a significant difference in comparison with the rest of the population. Younger residents between the ages of 18-25 had only a 29.2 percent voting rate, compared to 75.6 percent in the 26-35 year age range.

The involvement of youth in criminal acts is directly related to other economic and social factors. According to the World Bank 2006 study on youth violence in the Caribbean, the primary motivation identified for committing a crime was the desire to leave poverty.

There are multiple Youth Civic Participation Programs to foster youths' positive civic participation and reduce negative and illegal behaviors. There are programs available to help youth obtain birth certificates and identity documents. As of 2006, there were 17,000 children and youth who have been issued birth certificates, allowing them to attend school and vote in elections.

Again, gaps do exist in response to the need for better involvement and integration of youth in society. Youth tend to distrust government officials and institutions because they feel exploited when authorities tell them they are the future, but contradict that. They also tend to fear the judicial process, afraid jail will hinder them from reaching their next stage in life. Young adults in the Dominican Republic say that they believe they have a negative image in society, but ultimately just want their voices heard by older members of the community.

There are some organizations now that seek to empower young people with the specific intent that they will go out and further empower their communities. Organizations such as Fundacion Sur Adelante (Forward South Foundation) and the Callejera-Action Educational Foundation work with the youth population to mobilize them to become change agents. They also provide them with access to libraries, computers, and law services to allow them the awareness they need to better organize themselves for the future.