The Dominican Republic Finds Its Beauty Again with the Way to Happiness.

The Way to Happiness Foundation - https://www.thewaytohappiness.org/videos/voices-for-humanity/diana-pedroni.html

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | JULY 28, 2019

The Way to Happiness team in the Dominican Republic reaches across society with the 21 precepts and reduces violent crime in the picturesque Caribbean nation.

When you want to have a happy society, you cannot neglect the lack of a moral code,” says Diana Pedroni, Executive Director of The Way to Happiness Dominican Republic. A popular tourist destination for its postcard-perfect beaches, culture, music and warm people, the nation also suffers from over 2,000 violent deaths per year. “I saw the common denominator,” Pedroni observed. “Broken families that created criminality and then a society that was going down instead of up.” Looking for solutions, she found The Way to Happiness (TWTH) and soon teamed up with Bienvenido Flores, the Director of National Prevention and Citizen Security for the country.

“The Dominican Republic has been trying hard, through various state programs, to significantly decrease the homicide rate. In TWTH I found the precepts which define the path for an individual to have strong morals,” Flores said.

Pedroni and Flores became an unstoppable team. After meeting with the northeast region Police Commander, they delivered a seminar to his officers, who then distributed the booklet in a barrio in the city of Moca. At first, the residents were nervous about the police convoy, but as the booklets spread, so did the interest. So Pedroni and Flores gave a seminar to that community. While things were looking up in Moca, the situation in the rest of the island was worsening. Pedroni delivered to inmates in La Isleta Correction Center. Then, to reach the whole island, the team trained “multipliers” who went from city to city delivering seminars in every strata—from businesses to rehab centers and universities, reaching 250,000. Next they partnered with the government of Espaillat Province to deliver across that region. Then they trained the cadets of the Military Academy. With so much reach and delivery rolling across the nation, an official The Way to Happiness Foundation was established in the country. Soon people across the country were joining the Foundation and booklet distribution was happening everywhere from Old Santo Domingo city to Boca Chica Beach and at the Merengue Festival and more, ultimately reaching 2.2 million with The Way to Happiness. What followed was a 21 percent drop in violent crime, leading the Governor of Espaillat Province to say, “That is the essence of The Way to Happiness—to recover what the society has lost.”

Watch the full story at www.voicesforhumanity.tv/Dpedroni