Dominica

		Food For The Poor in Dominica Food For The Poor works in Dominica primarily through donations of goods including: Medical supplies Clothing Food Furniture Personal care items Donated items to Dominica are mostly used to assist the impoverished elderly living in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Food For The Poor ships containers of aid items to Dominica and other Caribbean countries every year.

General Information

	Dominica measures 280 square miles, about 2.5 times the size of Washington, DC.

Bananas and other agriculture dominate Dominica’s economy, and nearly one-third of the labor force works in agriculture. This sector, however, is highly vulnerable to weather conditions and to external events affecting commodity prices. In 2007, Hurricane Dean caused significant damage to the agricultural sector as well as the country’s infrastructure, especially roads.

A growing part of the economy in Dominica is tourism. It has increased as the government seeks to promote the country as an “ecotourism” destination and has developed a new tourism development plan. Still, thirty percent of the population currently lives below the poverty line.

History

Dominica was the last of the Caribbean islands to be colonized by Europeans due chiefly to the fierce resistance of the native Caribs. France ceded possession to Great Britain in 1763, which made the island a colony in 1805. In 1980, two years after independence, Dominica's fortunes improved when a corrupt and tyrannical administration was replaced by that of Mary Eugenia Charles, the first female prime minister in the Caribbean, who remained in office for 15 years. Some 3,000 Carib Indians still living on Dominica are the only pre-Columbian population remaining in the eastern Caribbean.

Interesting Facts

• Dominica has been nicknamed the “Nature Isle of the Caribbean” for its unspoiled natural beauty.
• The island features lush mountainous rainforests – home of many rare plant, animal, and bird species.
• The island is home to one of the continent’s greatest varieties of birds, including bananaquits, grey kingbirds, red-neckeds, frigatebirds, siffleurs, barn owls, brown pelicans, yellow warblers and plumbeous warblers.
• The name Dominica comes from the Italian word for Sunday (domenica), which was the day on which it was spotted by Christopher Columbus.
• Dominica is home to the world’s second-largest hot spring, Boiling Lake.
• Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a tropical forest blended with scenic volcanic features. It was recognized as a World Heritage Site on April 4, 1995, a distinction it shares with four other Caribbean islands.
• Dominica gained prominence on the international music stage when in 1973, Gordon Henderson founded the group Exile One and an original musical genre which he coined “Cadence-lypso” which paved the way for modern Creole music. Other musical genres include “Jing ping” and “Cadence.”
• Dominica is also highlighted by the famous Rain Forest Aerial Tram and Chatannye Nature Trail.
• Witness the endangered sea turtle, one of the world’s longest-living marine creatures, crawl onto Rosalie Beach to perform a fascinating nesting ritual. This is typical in Dominica between March and August each year.
• Dive Fest is the longest running Scuba Diving Festival in the Caribbean. Diving enthusiasts spend 9 days exploring 25 dive sites around Dominica.

Demographics