15 October, 2014
Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) partnered with the Procter & Gamble Company (P & G) and its Children’s Safe Drinking Water Program to improve maternal-child health and HIV care for 31,000 vulnerable children, pregnant and lactating women and people living with HIV/AIDS with P&G Purifier of Water Packets.
MONTE PLATA – On occasion of its 17-year anniversary celebration to be held on October 23rd at Batey Cinco, Municipal District Don Juan, Monte Plata province, BRA will launch the new project aiming at improving health conditions by distributing, over a four-year period (2014-17), 90 million liters of clean drinking water to 6,200 vulnerable and impoverished families living in ten “batey” communities within the municipalities of Sabana Grande de Boyá, Yamasá, Monte Plata, Peralvillo and Bayaguana. The project cost is $632,000.00.
The project will complement BRA’s maternal-child health and HIV/AIDS programs already being carried out in partnership with the Ministry of Health. BRA will organize, train and dispatch 50 community health promoters to educate entire communities about the proper use and health benefits of the water treatment packets, sanitation and hygiene, prevention techniques against water-borne diseases, and HIV/sexually-related infections; and will refer 31,000 residents to BRA Medical Clinics at Batey Cinco Casas, Municipal District Don Juan to receive comprehensive health and HIV/AIDS care and education, antiretroviral therapy, nutrition, micronutrients and Antiparasitic medicines.
On that same day, BRA will also launch its eighth consecutive-year USAID-funded Food Distribution program distributing 150 metric tons of highly nutritious food products to 20,700 people – and inaugurate a new Ambulatory Surgery and Educational Clinic to perform cataract and other non-life threatening surgeries on the populations.
Monte Plata is one of Dominican Republic’s poorest provinces, with 84% of its populations living in poverty. Two of three households are at risk for contamination while handling water due to the use of soiled or improper containers or during transport and storage in the home. Prevalence of diarrhea is high, 39% among children 6-11 and 42% in children 12-23 months of age. According to recent studies, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) suffer particularly from the health and social impacts of inadequate water and sanitation as their need for clean water, sanitation and hygiene practices increases as they struggle to protect themselves from infections, or cope with the disease symptoms. These statistics could even be much higher inside the bateyes due to the isolation of these communities from mainstream studies or government public service radar – and explain why residents are doubly vulnerable and even more affected by water insecurity than those living outside of the bateyes. Unaddressed, this level of water insecurity will increase these communities’ vulnerability to preventable diseases, mortality and morbidity, and dramatically inhibit their intellectual, professional or societal growth.
