16 April, 2005
Message from Ulrick Gaillard
Dear friend and supporter of BRA:
I am writing to you today to present the 2004 State of the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) ? and to humbly express our sincere gratitude and thanks for your continued support that enabled us to bring critical humanitarian health assistance to the most impoverished in the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
This is our first year reporting in that format to you. We thought it is also an appropriate way to reflect on and share, before the year ends, the great things we accomplished together, the challenges that still await us, and the importance of making our partnerships even stronger in order to achieve greater goals.
For the past twelve months, BRA demonstrated the organizational maturity needed to reinvent international health care in the bateyes as it expands its programs and projects, and attracts new funding to meet the continuing threat of HIV/AIDS and primary health needs of the impoverished populations.
Using a combination of fixed and mobile strategies, BRA delivered primary health and eye care, preventive health/hygiene education, essential medicines and vitamins, and food assistance to more than 10,000 children and adults languishing in thirty-four bateyes in the province of Monte Plata. Through its medical donations program, BRA distributed millions of dollars in medicines, medical supplies and equipment to fourteen local member/partner organizations raising their capacity to deliver care to another 80,000 located in other batey, urban/rural slum and border zone communities with Haiti. The words of Josafa Martinez, said it all when she described her day-to-day reality at batey Don Juan with her eyes filled with tears, ??this is so unreal that we can now access our own clinic, our own doctors and our own medicines. Thank you God! Thank you BRA! Thank you!? We at BRA feel fortunate for the opportunity to serve.
We implemented two significant new programs in the Monte Plata bateyes. Between the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) and Disciples of Christ?s Week of Compassion (WOC), we received funding to help reduce morbidity and mortality among 11,500 children and adults by implementing healthcare training and education where forty-two local health promoters were capacitated to educate families and children about health crisis prevention measures through hygiene practices such as hand washing, boiling drinking water, proper handling of food or using clean latrines. The second program, funded by the USAID/CONECTA and the Canadian Fund, involved the education, prevention and reduction of HIV/AIDS vertical transmission from pregnant women to their offspring in the bateyes where there exists an alarming 5% rate of infection.
It is important to share with you that this year, BRA expanded its programs more significantly to locations where other populations live in similar conditions as those of the bateyes. Through funding from the New Jersey Lions Eyeglass Recycling Center, 6791 children and adults received complete eye exam and care, prescription eyeglasses, sunglasses and drops via our permanent Blindness Prevention ?I Can See!? program at batey Cojobal and our partner VOSH groups traveling on mission trips to other impoverished sectors. BRA sponsored three eye care missions with VOSH-Chicago in San Pedro de Macoris, VOSH-Wisconsin in Boca Chica, and SVOSH-Ohio College of Optometry in Santo Domingo. Twenty-two cataract surgeries were also performed. In April, we partnered with the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad (AMHE) at border towns of Dajabon and Manzanillo as thousands of Haitians were granted, during political unrest in Haiti post the overthrow of President Jean Bertrand Aristide, one-day entry permits to receive medical and dental care inside the Dominican Republic. A total of 27,894 persons from 114 communities received emergency medical assistance through the BRA?s sponsored mission trips.
As a result of flash floods, heavy rain and Tropical Storm Jeanne earlier this summer, more than 5000 persons perished in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and close to 300,000 became homeless. With funds raised through the AMHE, Brooklyn-based Haitian-run Radio Soleil station and the Philadelphia?s benefit concert organized in July by the Circle of Friends Of Haiti, BRA intervened swiftly by dispatching the George Washington University Medical Group and other specialists to Jimani and Cange on disaster relief missions. BRA?s in-country staff and volunteers too responded immediately with food, vitamin, medicine and clothing distribution. The BRA?s sponsored relief groups also partnered with Haiti?s Partners in Health and MediShare delivering emergency medical care to a total of 8397 victims.
I am happy to also report that our volunteer placement program is stronger than ever. Through the continued support from CMMB and Peace Corps, BRA is now hosting three long-term volunteers working at its mobile clinic providing primary care and health crisis prevention education. BRA additionally hosted more than 70 health volunteers through short-term activities. Our own medical director, Dr. Raymond Thertulien, spent one full month in September working at our mobile clinic, and providing pro bono professional services to some of the BRA member organizations? health facilities in the bateyes and Santo Domingo?s slum communities of Los Mina. More volunteers are scheduled to join BRA in 2005 through our new collaboration with Canada?s CCSI and Plan Nagua.
BRA received more than $12 million worth of donated medical/nutritional supplies from the CMMB, Direct Relief International, Food for the Poor and Heart to Heart. This year, we developed new partnerships with four collaborators: Canada?s Colaboration Sante Internationale, IMA/Week of Compassion and International Aid. Thanks to these donors, BRA will continue to address serious health issues for women and children; reduce the spread of infectious diseases; improve the medical education of health professionals; and develop strong health facilities.
We believe that our work is not complete without our continuing effort to promote international education and understanding. That?s why in February, we held our second international conference at Columbia University?s Barnard College. The event was historical as dozens of Haitian and Dominican students formed a coalition to organize the conference under the banner ? “promoting greater cultural tolerance between our two populations.” The event also attracted prominent scholars and leaders from both sides to dialogue and forge concrete solutions to help address bilateral issues affecting the island of Hispaniola.
Our work has been recognized by CMMB for our 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? CMMB continues to be inspired by BRA taking leadership to a new level,? said John F. Galbraith, President and CEO of CMMB. Promiment figures, including Dominican-born baseball manager of the Kansas City Royals, Tony Pena, joined this year our institution as an Hononary Board Member.
As we proudly acknowledge our successes and accomplishments, we must also take the time to reflect on so many events that challenged us to the limit these past months. In the aftermath of the deadly flood devastation in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, thousands still face a grim future without basic living necessities, including food, shelter, health care and vital medicines. More than 200,000 poor marginalized Haitians and Dominicans living in the bateyes are still affected by the recent tragedies, as they are unable to return home to Haiti or meet their long-term basic needs.
BRA was called on again to respond on a long-term scale by building at Monte Plata’s batey Cinco Casas the first medical center complex equipped with a laboratory, a twelve-room volunteer dormitory and an ambulance donated by the Wallkill Valley Rotary Club. BRA received funding from the Lions Clubs International Foundation and the Dominican?s State Sugar Council to cover the project?s initial renovation and construction costs. The center, to be in full operation in 2006, will deliver primary care to 20,000 each year. We are also in discussion with the Water Life Foundation and the Wallkill Rotary to implement in 2005 a two-year water distribution project combined latrine construction and health/hygiene crisis education in the bateyes.
While it is obvious that thousands languishing in the Dominican?s bateyes deserve our humanitarian attention, there are also those inside Haiti whose lives have been completely shattered by continuing political and economic difficulties. They too need to our help. This is why we have in our immediate plans to create BRA HAITI ? a similar entity as BRA DOMINICANA, where the Haiti-based organization will umbrella several local grass-roots health groups to provide collaborative care to families in towns near the Haitian border.
As this report indicates, you have been with us in our endeavors; helped us grow and accomplish so much in so little time. Those challenges that await us will be overcome with your continued support as we tackle them with conviction and discipline one at a time. BRA depends on your bona fide partnership as we move forward to make the next year as rewarding as 2004.
On behalf of those we serve, we thank and wish you and your family the happiest holiday seasons and a wonderful new year.
Respectfully,
Ulrick Gaillard, J.D.
Executive Director
Batey Relief Alliance, Inc.
