31 October, 2004
New York City ? In its 2003 annual report, the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) lauded the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) for its leadership in international health service delivery. ?Founded just six years ago, the story of BRA and its work with CMMB shows exactly what can happen when individual people take initiative,? said John F. Galbraith, President and CEO of CMMB.
Since its inception in1998, BRA has developed an unprecedented humanitarian health care system inside the bateyes of the Dominican Republic. Using a combination of fixed and mobile strategies, BRA delivers primary care through projects ranging from the installation of a thirty-foot fully staffed mobile health clinic visiting communities one year at-a-time, to now building the bateyes? first medical center complex equipped with a laboratory, a twelve-room volunteer dormitory and an ambulance.
Through its Dominican-based sister organization, BRA Dominicana, the Batey Relief Alliance, additionally, implements key programs in HIV/AIDS and blindness education/prevention and healthcare training. More than 10,000 poor marginalized Haitian migrant and Dominican adults and their children at thirty-five bateyes in the Monte Plata province now receive freely permanent eye and health care with medicines, vitamins, eyeglasses and food assistance. Other BRA programs in medical donations, placement of volunteers, annual medical missions and disaster relief help raise the capacity of fifteen local organizations belonging to the BRA Alliance to deliver emergency and primary care to another 80,000 in fifty-five other impoverished batey, urban/rural slum and frontier zone communities around the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
A network of seventeen international support groups inside the United States and Canada is integrally involved with BRA Dominicana in the design and implementation of all health related activities. ?This is what the Batey Relief Alliance is all about ? uniting local member organizations, partner government agencies, the universities and the international community in a strategic health care delivery partnership,? said Ulrick Gaillard, Executive Director of the BRA.
BRA bases its premise for this collaborative type of intervention on the fact that thousands of families in the bateyes and other sectors cannot easily access the public health system due to racial discrimination, extreme poverty, or fear of deportation. ?The answer to this inequity is, accessibility, to bring the care to the populations, inside their communities, and free of any barriers. Once the population becomes healthy, it can contribute to its environment,? added Dr. Raymond Thertulien, BRA?s medical director.
For the past three years, CMMB has been a key partner and donated close to ten million dollars in medicines, medical supplies and equipment to support BRA?s aggressive health care intervention in the bateyes. ?We are truly honored that our work has been supported and recognized by this well respected institution,? added Gaillard. CMMB?s partnership also helps BRA staff its medical facilities with foreign health volunteers, capacitate local health promoters, and reduce infant mortality by teaching children and adults how to reduce the risks of preventable diseases through simple practices such as hand-washing and boiling drinking water.
BRA promotes its humanitarian work and raises public awareness about the plight of the target populations through its interactive website, www.bateyrelief.org, and organizing annual international conferences in the United States. These conferences present a unique opportunity to Dominican and Haitian scholars, students and public officials to dialogue and forge together bona fide avenues to solve bilateral issues affecting the island of Hispaniola. ?CMMB continues to be inspired by BRA taking leadership to a new level,? added Mr. Galbraith.
CMMB has been providing medical supplies and services to people in need around the world for the past 75 years. To learn more about the BRA story in the report, please click on CMMB?s website at http://www.cmmb.org/pdfs/CMMB_AR03.pdf, and find pages 12-13 for more details.
