Duquesa is a small, extremely poor community in rural Dominican Republic. Their livelihood comes from diving into a landfill that is a few miles away to sort recyclable material. This practice doesn’t discriminate age — from eleven, children go to work helping their families, which makes them vulnerable to dropping out of school. Trueque leverages insights from behavioral science, education and design to create favorable conditions for positive behavior change among children and ultimately the entire community.
Karla Sofia Despradel
Karla Sofia Despradel was born on the sunny island of the Dominican Republic. Equipped with a Communication Design background acquired from Altos de Chavon School of Design and Parsons, she came to DSI with an interest in the growth and purpose of social innovation.
Since graduating from the program, Karla has been working as an international freelancer of innovation design strategy back home in the Dominican Republic. Some projects she’s worked on after graduating from DSI include producing design research on pleasure and sex education for women’s impact nonprofits, research and development of UX/UI design concepts for consumer facing services for a leading energy provider in Ohio, ecosystem mapping and concept development for oil and energy providers in China, and more.
