SOCIAL ENTERPRISES = SELF-SUSTAINABILITY
ProActividad para la Cooperación y Desarrollo (ProActividad)  is a social initiative that seeks to achieve sustainability through income generated by social enterprises. This method allows us to achieve a level of independence from external financing and maintain control and freedom over our objectives.
Our initiatives include: working with people from the marginalized LGBT community in the Dominican Republic to prevent and treat HIV / AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases through sexual and reproductive health care; collaborate to reduce discrimination and stigma with policies for change and awareness campaigns; as well as addressing fundamental problems through the formation of social enterprises in the tourism sector.
At ProActividad we work closely with under-served, marginalized and poor young people, who have been denied the right to obtain social justice, reach their full potential and be part of local movements. This sector of youth is at greater risk of being victims of poor sexual and reproductive health.
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Tourism can be a social tool to guarantee more human rights.
ProActividad aims to use tourism as a vehicle to achieve sustainable social and economic development for LGBT youth, and as a means of creating greater tolerance and acceptance of the LGBT community through exposure to LGBT tourists from abroad. We work to support the productive sector in community based tourism for job creation and poverty reduction amongst disenfranchised young people living in towns with tourism potential in the Dominican Republic. In a country with a tourism driven economy, it is important for the benefits of tourism to be enjoyed as equitably as possible. This requires increased community participation and resource management.
Increasing awareness of how the LGBT tourism market can create economic benefit for the private tourism sector requires diversity training and marketing. This can lead to improved social conditions for local LGBT persons as the sector strives to offer a more welcoming experience to all. The visibility of LGBT tourists with the wider population, who may have stereotyped views, also helps sensitize the broader population, opening awareness, and decreasing fear and hostility.
We firmly believe that it is a powerful way to promote more just and tolerant societies and that it can contribute to the protection of human rights.
ProActividad focuses on structural factors for prevention through various avenues:
Reduce the economic factors that increase the possibility of risky sexual behavior through training to develop skills that increase the employability of young people.
Create job opportunities and foster entrepreneurship that develops income-generating business ideas and social enterprises.
Document promising interventions, raise awareness, advocate and inform, and look for potential future areas of work
Change social norms such as gender inequality, violence, stigma and discrimination, to reduce the possibility of engaging in risky behaviors through communication