26 August, 2006
JEAN-CLAUDE
Jean-Claude Delinua, an immigrant from Haiti, came to the Dominican Republic 11 years ago to cut sugar cane. In March, after he had been sick for 8 months, his HIV-infected neighbor, Yasaira Calpio, told the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) about him. When BRA workers first visited his tiny shed, he was confined to this hammock made from a pig feed sack and couldn’t speak. A medical exam at a nearby mobile clinic run by BRA determined that he had chronic diarrhea, pneumonia, bronchitis, and a cryptococcal infection. BRA rehydrated him and his voice returned, but his condition remained parlous: They couldn’t afford to transport him to Santo Domingo, where free anti-HIV drugs were then available. But then help from the Clinton Foundation and the Dominican Ministry of Health’ s Digecitts suddenly allowed BRA to purchase antiretroviral medicine for its new clinic in nearby Cinco Casas. In July, Delinua was being treated and still alive. With the support of the BRA, he now has a comfortable mattress to sleep in, adequate nutrition, clothing and free psychosocial and medical services.
