About Us

At Home and Afar began as a grassroots operation by four women driven by passion and a devotion to volunteering to help people in need at an international level. Determined to help casualties of the devastating 2010 Haiti earthquake, they reached out to partners on the island of Hispaniola and identified large groups of critically injured victims who had been isolated from the large international medical response teams. These women stepped up and organized a small rapid response team determined to deliver crucial medical care and transportation. While planning and defining their strategy to help the hundreds of women, children, and families in need, they recruited a larger medical team to join them. The response team grew tenfold, and treated Haitian victims who had been transferred into substandard facilities on the other part of the island, the Dominican Republic.

After returning from the Haiti earthquake effort, this group was determined to do more. Three of the four women were joined by another woman dedicated to “giving back” and helping others, and established At Home and Afar. Their joint vision was to establish a national and international volunteer organization to help others in need, delivering medical and humanitarian assistance. They recruited teams of local doctors, nurses, mental health professionals, and humanitarian support volunteers. They raised funds to rehabilitate a medical clinic in Barahona, Dominican Republic. Since its formation in 2012, At Home and Afar operated the clinic throughout each year, delivering chronic care and continuity of care to impoverished families in a very poor barrio. Our volunteers also distributed clothing, toys, glasses, and dental supplies, and participated in installing concrete flooring and other home improvements in to homes in need.

During 2014 and 2015, At Home and Afar expanded its efforts, partnering with a USA foundation and Dominican organization, to fund and construct a fresh drinking water well in the Cassandra barrio, that now provides clean water to hundreds of homes in a community of people who have had local access to potable water – one of the reasons for ill health in many members of the community.

From 2015 through 2021, the organization helped develop 2 more waterworks projects in two other neighborhoods – Rio Chil and Imbert. The waterworks projects included a well, pump, cistern and distribution piping. The Imbert project recently incorporated a solar energy power supply that will significantly reduce the cost of providing drinking water to that community.

At Home and Afar’s mission is focused on supporting local charities, women’s shelters, children with disabilities, families impacted by disasters and others in need. At Home and Afar regularly donates clothing and food, as well as fills the holiday and Christmas wish lists of children living in shelters.

We welcome others to get involved with any of our projects – please reach out to us! At Home and Afar is a non-profit organization, delivering volunteer medical and humanitarian assistance to families in need in and outside the United States.