Major Leaguers are Committed to Improving Lives in the Dominican Republic
The Players Trust provides valuable resources to an area so many Players call home
Major Leaguers Are Committed to Improving Lives in the Dominican Republic
Through a partnership between the Major League Baseball Players Trust and the U.S. nonprofit Esperanza International, Major Leaguers are helping improve the lives of families across the Dominican Republic – a place so many Players call home.
Grants from the Players Trust help some of the Dominican Republic’s most vulnerable populations by supporting and funding Esperanza’s microfinance program and its water purification and distribution project.
From September through December 2016 alone, Players Trust grants helped provide 76 loans to first-time borrowers. Esperanza estimates that these new loans will impact at least 380 lives in three of their eight branch office areas, including North Santo Domingo, West Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris. These low interest loans help families break through an endless cycle of poverty by providing the necessary resources to get small businesses up and running.
In addition to the loans, the Trust backs investments in Esperanza’s complementary services, including vocational courses and educational programs. Through these extension programs, participants are growing their businesses by learning and/or improving crucial skills such as sewing, making cleaning compounds, handicrafts and decorations and more. Other services supported include healthcare training, family planning and hygiene.
Many of us take easy access to clean drinking water for granted, but in the Dominican Republic access to such water can be scarce. That’s why Esperanza operates two water purification projects with funding from the Players Trust: 7 Veces de Vida and Agua Life. Combined, these two projects help provide area residents with close to 25,000 gallons of clean and affordable drinking water per month.
The Trust’s partnership with Esperanza has had a tremendous impact in the area, and it complements additional support and funding the Players Trust provides to Medicines for Humanity, another U.S. based non-profit making a difference in the lives of the neediest of the needy in the Dominican Republic.
Major Leaguers care deeply about the places where they live and work, and through the Players Trust they are committed to giving back in support of underserved populations across the Americas.
To learn more, please visit www.PlayersTrust.org and follow @MLBPlayersTrust.
