Sami Scott
Year Joined MKLM: 1996
Country: Dominican Republic
Town: Consuelo, San Pedro de Makoris
Current statuS: Having to flee Gros Morne, Haiti due to the deteriorated security situation in early 2024, Sami has since relocated to the Dominican Republic where she is able to serve the Haitian migrants and refugees that fled their neighboring country due to the violence and lack of security.
She is working in the Local Development department specifically with small business formation, savings and loan groups, and an agricultural project of the World Food Organization that is just starting. The participants are mainly women who want to start a small business or grow the one that they currently have.
MinistrIES: Entrepreneurial training, savings & loan groups, and agricultural formation
Ministry Area: Sustainable Development
goals of ministry: By helping Haitians start small businesses and form savings & loan groups, they can afford to send their children to school and/or provide jobs for them so that they don’t get involved with gangs. Hopefully, when the Haitians in the Dominican Republic are gainfully employed or studying, they will face less discrimination from the local authorities.
Nonviolence Focus: Prevention.
Ministry Context:
Haitians living in the Dominican Republic are second-class citizens and often stateless when their legal documents expire with no way to get them renewed. There currently are no diplomatic relations between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The Haitian Consulate is closed and the only way to renew a passport is to travel back to Haiti, and Port-au-Prince which is under gang control.
The current Dominican President is very anti-Haiti and has vowed to deport 10,000 Haitians per week. Immigration is going around to round up Haitians whether they have legal status, are legal citizens of the DR, or were born there. There is a lot of fear in the community for Immigration raids. People helping Haitian, especially giving them rides, can be prosecuted to human trafficking.
The Haitian in the DR arrived due to lack of opportunity in their Haitian home, often due to gang activity. Maybe the only people who won’t be deported are the workers in the sugar cane plantations. Because they work in slave-like conditions, no one else wants to work there. They live in Bateys, communities built by either the government or the sugar processing companies to house workers. They may have only basic services and are isolated, surrounded by sugar cane.
Current Ministry:
Sami is working in the Local Development department specifically with small business formation, savings and loan groups, and an agricultural project of the World Food Organization that is just starting. The participants are mainly women who want to start a small business or grow the one that they currently have.
Personal Data:
Sami has been a Lay Missioner for over 28 years. Her most recent assignment was in Haiti, but had to leave there in March 2024 due to the insecurity. The situation doesn’t look to improve any time soon, so when she was offered an opportunity to collaborate with Rostro de Cristo and ASCALA in the Dominican Republic, serving the Haitian community, she graciously accepted. Sami’s background is in business administration and finance and she enjoys working with women’s groups.
When Sami transferred to Haiti in October 2018, she became the first Maryknoll lay missioner in the Caribbean. In Haiti she worked in an agricultural project and accompany the women in the project of the World Food Program. Sami has previously served with Maryknoll Lay Missioners in Venezuela (1996-2007) and Cambodia (2008-2018). In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, she was the finance manager first at the Seedlings of Hope HIV/AIDS Program, and later at Boeung Tumpun Community Health and Education Project. She also did music ministry in her parish. In Pavia, Venezuela, Sami started a community food cooperative, worked with youth in a music ministry and did pastoral outreach in the rural areas.
Sami is originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, but came to Maryknoll Lay Missioners from Phoenix, Arizona. She has a bachelor of science in finance from Marquette University, and has worked in banking as an analyst and auditor. She has served as a lector, communion minister, usher, hospitality minister and budget committee member at various parishes over the years. She has also volunteered at a reading service for the blind.
