History of Social Services of the Dominican Churches

Social Services of the Dominican Churches (SSID), is a non-profit organization and registered 501(c)3. It is a interdenominational, Christ-centered, and bible focused organization. SSID members come from 15 different evangelical protestant denominations, and 15 ecclesiastical institutions from throughout the country.

The creation of Servicio Social Cristiano

SSID was founded in May of 1962, and legally recognized through Resolution No. 5941. SSID began their work in the Dominican Republic in response to a string of events that shook the the population of the Dominican Republic, especially those living without the most basic resources needed for their survival. The severe social, economic, and political difficulties, that were caused by the economic embargo put into place by the Organization of American States against the Trujillo and Balaguer dictatorships, caused epidemics and diseases due to the lack of food, medicine, and other basic supplies.

In 1962 the situation reached an unbearable level for the population, and motivated the leaders of the Protestant churches to act out of their love and compassion for the poorest of the people. Church leaders came together to help better manage the channeling of aid, in the Dominican Republic and abroad to insure that it reached those who needed it most. In order to do this the churches began to organize the first national network of Protestant churches, and named themselves “Servicio Social Cristiano”, which was the original name of SSID.

In 1980, while Social Services of the Dominican Churches was continuing to help the rebuilding of communities in the Dominican Republic, through aid from the United Nations Development Program and other agencies, they became involved in local farming and agricultural production. Later they combined these projects with their own that focused on developing active community participation, and began to receive direct funding from the United States and Europe. The financial support and materials that the international organizations contributed, and with direction from local communities, our members dedicated themselves to the construction of new roads and paths, expanded agriculture, and began community organizing, with the help of the human and financial resources found in the local churches and communities.

Social Services of the Dominican Church

During the 80’s, even though SSID and others had resolved many of the original problems caused by governmental corruption and the trade embargo; there were still large areas of poverty, a lack of food security, and many other difficulties. These challenges gave birth to Servicio Social de Iglesias Dominicanas in the most affected regions in the country: Dajabón in the Northeast, Barahona in the South, San Juan de la Maguana for the Southwestern regions, and in the Bateyes (sugar cane communities) in the East, and have their main office in Santo Domingo, the capital. Since then they have created a fifth office in Sabana Grande de Boya.

In the beginning of the 1990’s SSID realized that it was necessary to work in projects that favored the integral development of families and communities; preparing people with the skills and capacity to direct and develop diverse projects with the goal that they would begin to participate and take charge of their own development. SSID began to work in programs like health, education, clean water, agricultural production, environmental protection, economic development, and others. Over time as the projects developed it became clear that some of these needed to be divided into sub areas, for example with education; SSID now works with adult literacy, preschool programming, art classes, informal education, and more. This has made these programs more efficient and more focused.

SSID Today

Now SSID works to continue to support the development of Dominican Communities, especially in rural areas. They work to maintain networks of relationships between communities, churches, and institutions at all levels to help identify the needs of the poorest of the poor, and to organize communities so that they can better identify, prioritize needs, plan, train, and work, so that these communities can be the actors that initiate and direct their community’s development.

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