SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, September 4, 2005. The objective of the project is to mobilize various community and volunteer networks in order to help implement the Dominican Republic’s strategy of the National Program for Control of Tuberculosis (PNCT) – an arm of the Dominican’s Ministry of Health (SESPAS).

BRA will target 40 bateyes of the Monte Plata province with activities relating to the prevention of TB, the promotion of health services from the PNCT, and the reduction of stigma/discrimination against TB patients. These activities include orientation talks to take place at schools, churches and other community sites, as well as visits to the homes of TB patients. “We will be working closely with local leaders and community members to help develop these activities,” said Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the BRA.

BRA Dominicana will undertake the project for two years spanning 2005 to 2007 with financial help from the USAID/Conecta project amounting to $75,000. In-kind support will come from some of the BRA’s major partners including Direct Relief International, Dominican’s State Sugar Council (CEA), Food for the Poor, and the Catholic Medical Mission Board.

BRA is currently seeking high quantity of donations in clothing and food (rice, corn, beans, milk, etc.) for the patients. Please contact Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bateyrelief.org for more information on how to donate.

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, July 9, 2005. Working in partnerships with the USAID-funded Family Health International/Conecta project, the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Dominican Ministry of Health’s DIGECTISS, BRA launched in August the “Proyecto Arco Iris/Rainbow Project,” a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment program targeting 20 bateyes in the Monte Plata Province, Dominican Republic.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic combined account for the Caribbean’s 85% total HIV/AIDS cases– and second highest to sub Sahara Africa. HIV/AIDS prevalence in the bateyes – impoverished Dominican Republic’s sugar cane plantations slum communities inhabited mostly by Haitian migrant families and Dominicans of Haitian origin, is significantly higher at 5% than the national average of 1%. But batey HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care efforts are extremely limited. “We are working diligently to find ways to involve all interested parties in the process of attending to all infected with the virus,” said Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the BRA.

The Rainbow Project is multifaceted and includes: identification of patients living with HIV and AIDS through surveys and large-scale testing; counseling; medical attention including antiretroviral therapy and treatment of opportunistic infections; and laboratory testing including CD4 tests. It will also provide attention to pregnant women and work to prevent the vertical transmission of the virus. At full capacity, the project will accommodate 1,700 people in total: 100 pregnant women, 1000 children, orphans and vulnerable individuals, 200 people living with HIV/AIDS, and 400 affected individuals living with HIV patients.

The project is comprehensive in that it will attend not only to HIV patients, but also to vulnerable and affected children and adults living with HIV patients in the form of food and clothing donations, economic self-sufficiency seminars and counseling. BRA is also initiating preventative health/hygiene education and empowerment programs through a network of community health promoters and young adults.

This program, when fully operational, will be an example of quality, comprehensive HIV/AIDS treatment in the Dominican Republic. “It is BRA’s hope that other organizations will take after BRA’s example and initiate, with BRA’s guidance, similar programs both inside the Dominican Republic and abroad,” concluded Gaillard.

BROOKLYN, New York, August 21, 2005 – With more than $160,000 in cash raised from the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, the Lions Clubs International Foundation and the Dominican’s State Sugar Council (CEA), BRA is finalizing the modern-designed construction of the bateyes’ first medical center complex located at batey Cinco Casas in the province of Monte Plata.

The center, with a price tag of more than half-a-million US dollars in construction, projects and first-year operation, is set to be inaugurated early this year. The facility will be equipped to provide complete health care (general medicine, pediatrics, ophthalmology, dentistry, gynecology, and preventive health education) to at least 12,000 per year, including HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis education/prevention/treatment. It also has space to conduct medical research, perform laboratory work — a warehouse with the capacity to store 10 40-foot containers of medicines and supplies, a dormitory to house 5 long-term volunteer health professionals, and an ambulance. “Our intended goal is to make affordable health care freely accessible to all residents of the bateyes inside their own communities,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO.

Other key donors to the project include Direct Relief International, the Catholic Medical Mission Board, the New Jersey Eyeglass Recycling Center and Food for the Poor.

Additional funding is critically needed for the center’s maintenance and additional projects. Please contact us at bra@bateyrelief.org about how you can help.