11 December, 2025
SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic—The mayor’s office of the municipal district of El Puerto in San Pedro de Macoris honored Ulrick Gaillard, founder and president of the U.S.-based organization Batey Relief Alliance (BRA), by presenting him the “Key to the City” for his nearly three decades of tireless humanitarian service to the country’s most vulnerable populations.
The ceremony took place Thursday, December 11, at the BRA headquarters in Santo Domingo with the mayor of El Puerto, Juan Pacheco, presenting the award to Mr. Gaillard. Others present were Dr. Togarma Rodríguez, vice president of the organization’s board of directors, and other executives.
During the event, Gaillard’s, a philanthropist, long career was highlighted, as being responsible for transforming the social reality of hundreds of thousands of families in the historically neglected bateyes (sugar plantation rural communities).
For Pacheco, the awarding of the Key to the City constitutes “a well-deserved tribute to a leader who has demonstrated that compassion, turned into action, can change entire destinies.”
Gaillard, a lawyer by training and a humanitarian by vocation, founded BRA in New York in 1997, amidst the profound crisis of poverty, hunger, and disease that plagued the bateyes administered by the then State Sugar Council (CEA). From that year onward, he led a tireless crusade to restore dignity, health, and opportunities to communities marked by structural neglect.
“His legacy is an example of compassion with concrete results. His holistic, multi-level, and collaborative approach has saved lives, restored hope, and demonstrated that humanity transcends borders, languages, and creeds,” said Vice President Rodríguez.
One of Gaillard’s most emblematic achievements was the construction, in 2006, of the first modern health complex within a batey, the BRA Medical Center, located in Batey Cinco Casas, Monte Plata province. This facility, equipped with a laboratory, pharmacy, ambulance, a mobile medical unit, and 15 consulting rooms, broke a five-century cycle of health exclusion in the sugarcane areas.
For more than a decade, this complex provided primary and specialized care, including vital services for people living with HIV/AIDS, and essential medications for tens of thousands of children and adults. In 2017, as part of a responsible institutional transition, BRA handed the center over to the Ministry of Public Health to expand its reach throughout the country.
In 2021, the organization marked a milestone by publishing a groundbreaking study on menstrual inequality in the country, revealing that 20% of girls missed two to three days of school each month due to a lack of access to sanitary pads. The report led to a program for the production of reusable pads and spurred legislative initiatives.
BRA has also been a pillar in the fight against malnutrition. In 28 years, it distributed more than 2,600 metric tons of nutritious food and millions of doses of micronutrients and antiparasitic medications, benefiting 1,235,850 people, equivalent to 11% of the Dominican population.
Another significant contribution from Gaillard has been the launch of BRA’s Women’s Empowerment Initiative, which she designed in 2018, to support rural women entrepreneurs in income-generating agricultural production through microloans and training, with the goal of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty.
Access to clean water also was a strategic priority, complementing the organization’s comprehensive health delivery system. Over nearly three decades, BRA has distributed approximately 450 million liters of clean water and installed numerous sanitation systems that have protected half a million people from waterborne diseases.
A key part of Gaillard’s impact lies in the network of strategic alliances he has built, maintaining an apolitical, needs-centered approach to achieving the organization’s charitable objectives: agreements with the Dominican government—including the CEA and the Ministry of Public Health—and collaborations with the international community, such as the Clinton Foundation, Lions Clubs International Foundation, the United Nations (UN), USAID, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Canada Fund and multinational corporations such as Procter & Gamble, GILDAN, among others.
Thanks to this cooperative model, BRA has raised more than $130 million and implemented programs that have benefited more than 4.5 million people, solidifying a humanitarian legacy on a continental scale.
“The fundamental right to health, nutrition, education, and the opportunity to produce without social barriers is the essence of our mission. This recognition belongs to the communities that never stopped fighting,” Gaillard said upon receiving the award.
Born on November 15, 1961, Ulrick Gaillard holds a Juris Doctor degree from Roger Williams University School of Law, a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Baruch College, and executive leadership training from Harvard University. In addition to leading BRA, he is the organization’s chief representative to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a collaborator of the Clinton Global Initiative, and an affiliated professor at the University of Minnesota.
His career also includes experience as a community organizer and legislative aide at the New York State Assembly. He has demonstrated a unique ability to articulate lasting solutions to complex social problems, leaving an indelible mark on the humanitarian landscape of the Americas and the Caribbean. Gaillard is a recipient of Rotary International’s prestigious Paul Harris Humanitarian Award. For its part, BRA enjoys broad international and local recognition, including Special Consultative Status with the UN’s ECOSOC, a citation from the New York State Assembly, and being listed by the USDA as one of the top NGOs in developing countries. Nationally, its impact in the Dominican Republic has been commemorated with the declaration of October 23 as “Batey Relief Alliance Day,” the naming of “Batey Relief Alliance Street” in its honor, and a citation from the Senate.
