18 September, 2007
NEW YORK, New York. – The New York Rotary Club’s Foundation has made a grant of $2400 to the Batey Relief Alliance to start a comprehensive water/sanitation program benefiting thirty impoverished families living in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic. The project will be coordinated in partnership with the DR-based Club Rotario Arroyo Hondo Santo Domingo, which also contributed $200 towards the project.
Thirty Biosand water filters will be purchased and placed strategically inside homes giving access to 740 residents living inside bateyes Cojobal, Cinco Casas, and Bosque Abajo in the province of Monte Plata. The project will complement two other BRA projects: Multivitamin/deworming providing multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines to 55,000 malnourished children and HIV/AIDS prevention and antiretroviral treatment for AIDS sufferers.
Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO and active member of the NY Rotary Club, explained that parasitic infections in the bateyes are a common cause of death in children under five and can also contribute to anemia and other serious health problems. Access to clean water is especially more problematic among our HIV/AIDS patients who do not have a hardy immune system to defend themselves against water-borne pathogens. Infection with multiple parasites is very common among these patients and can begin a downward spiral of weight loss that eventually leads to death.
Access to clean water for residents is a grave concern inside the bateyes, and a major source of illness in our patient population. With no potable water available, most batey residents rely on contaminated rivers, rain, or open wells as a source of water—all of which contain water-borne pathogens. In recent focus groups conducted by BRA, batey residents listed clean water as their number one priority. Based on BRA’s current statistics, 14% of patients who visit its clinics are seeking treatment for intestinal parasitic infections. “Not only will these filters impact the health of these patients directly, they will also improve the health of their family members caring for them and that of their neighbors, thus reducing local transmission of parasites and the cost for their basic medical care,” added Camilo Uy, President of the New York Rotary Club.
Each family that receives a filter will also learn about health and hygiene, how to care for their filters, and receive health services with free medicines and vitamins. BRA will also train community stewards to provide continued education and support for filter users.
For more information about BRA’s humanitarian health work in the Dominican Republic, please visit its website at www.bateyrelief.org or contact Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bkreative.net.
