24 February, 2014
NEW YORK. – Through a grant of $15,000.00 from The International Foundation, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) will deliver critical health and HIV/AIDS services, critical medicines and education to 20,000 people who are vulnerable, impoverished and medically at risk living in various Dominican Republic’s sugarcane plantations rural “batey” communities, in the Monte Plata region.
According to BRA’s CEO, Ulrick Gaillard, healthcare limitations in the targeted communities is the result of endemic poverty and neglect, which limit access to readily available medical services and is linked to a disproportionately high prevalence of HIV/AIDS (up to twelve times higher than the national average). To address these root causes of these limitations, BRA will expand affordable services to families with minimal wage earning potential. Special priority will be given to persons requiring increased healthcare and those at greatest risk for health vulnerability (People living with HIV/AIDS, pregnant women, children, elderly, and families caring for HIV OVCs).
Services will also be expanded to farmers/cooperative members and their families participating in BRA’s cooperative/agricultural development program. BRA will deliver services at its Medical Center facilities, located at Batey Cinco Casas, municipal district Don Juan, and through other mobile medical interventions to promote increased utilization of existing services, particularly among pregnant women, infants and children, and PLWHAs, thus improving their physical ability to remain productive members of their communities.
Gaillard added that BRA’s new expansion medical facility will complement and enhance the impact of BRA’s ongoing healthcare and HIV/AIDS services delivered at its primary medical facility to 60,000 persons annually. BRA will commit part of the project activities to improving Mother-Infant Health and HIV Prevention and treatment.
