SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, February 25, 2006: With generous funding support from the MAC AIDS Fund, BRA Dominicana and the Margaret Sanger Center International recently joined forces to develop a new project called “community integration for the prevention of HIV/AIDS linked to gender-based violence” targeting the bateyes of the Monte Plata province.

Interactions between HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence are many, and have severe consequences on the health and human development of young girls and women, including those living inside the bateyes of the Dominican Republic.

People on the bateyes live a precarious existence that inescapably links poverty to gender. Most bateyes do not have electricity, sanitation, potable water, and decent housing. Except for services provided by non-governmental organizations, communities living in bateyes have limited access to health care and education. Due to high unemployment, many women turn to transactional sex for survival, and are vulnerable to sexual violence.

Reproductive health indicators for the marginalized Batey population are extremely poor. Fertility rates in rural areas of the DR reach as high as 4.0, well above the national average of 2.8 (ENDESA, 1996). In a recent national health survey, only 1.2% of women in rural areas of the Dominican Republic, including bateyes, reported using condoms for protection against pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (ENDESA, 2002). It is not surprising, then, that although the national HIV infection rate in the DR is 1%, 5% of the Batey population is infected. Rates of HIV infection among specific gender and age groups living on the bateyes are even more alarming; up to 8% of women under the age of 35 are seropositive, while 12% of men between the ages of 40-44 are infected – a number twelve times the national average (ENDESA, 2002).

This collaborative project aims to create a community support network for women who are victims of gender-based violence in the bateyes. It also offers community education on HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence prevention. The project will reach at least 600 women and men who live in the bateyes and strengthen community-based services by offering training to local health personnel, and advocacy actions to create awareness and to place the topic on local agenda and policies.

These project interventions are grassroots-based and will be accompanied by a wider range of global actions, including advocacy for policy change and adaptation of norms and protocols that reflect the link between gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS. In this way, the project will ensure equal access to treatment for infected women and men and women who experience domestic and sexual violence and strengthen preventive behaviors among girls, women, boys and men.