7 Elements

7elements (7e) is a Dominican Republic based, non-government organization founded in 2010. From our first 3-months of 10-day service learning trips that incorporated 100 volunteers from over 9 countries, we have expanded into an organization that provides end-to-end sustainable solutions for the most in-need communities of the Dominican Republic, Peru, Haiti and Belize. We align our efforts with the 7 elements of human security: Economic, Environmental, Food, Health, Political, Personal and Community. Our belief is that these elements of security are interconnected and in order to address one issue, you must look at how the other components are related. Our model has proven successful for the 8 local areas we have served to date and it is because we have taken a holistic look at the systemic issues that plague these communities. We do not believe this is something that can be accomplished alone and we actively seek partners to help us achieve a stronger and more sustainable world.Mission: To introduce people from the developed world to human security issues in the developing world while accessing their talent, skills and resources in applying appropriate, locally-supportable technologies to reduce risks and vulnerabilities in insecure communities.Vision: To engage tomorrow’s leaders in developing sustainable solutions to human insecurities in the developing world. 7e is focused on assisting communities with humanitarian and development needs through service-learning programs for international students. More specifically, we have adopted the concept of “human security” from the UN Development Program and we use it as the back bone to how we engage with communities and educate students that go through our service-learning programs. The name of our foundation refers to the “7 elements” of human security: economic security, health security, food security, environmental security, personal security, community security, and political security. We collaborate with each community to do a “needs assessment” and we use a diagnostic tool designed to reveal vulnerabilities that a community may have in each of the 7 elements. Once 7e and the community have identified certain priorities, we develop a strategy on how our program participants can work in conjunction with community partners to plan and implement appropriate projects intended to address those priorities.