MARISELA
Marisela sat in the BRA’s mobile clinic wearing a little pink dress, her skinny arms and legs jutting out at sharp angles from her body. Her hair was brittle and orange from malnutrition. She spoke in a raspy voice and her breath was labored. For months she’d been suffering from constant respiratory infections. Yet she was still eager to talk. I learned that she loved baseball and wanted rotisserie chicken brought to the next workshop BRA held for AIDS patients. Every week, at the patient workshop sponsored by USAID/CONECTA she seemed to be getting thinner and thinner. It seemed clear that without immediate intervention we would lose her. Coming to her rescue, twenty-four generous individuals donated over US $22,000 towards BRA’s AIDS Patient Fund, to help patients like Marisela receive treatment for AIDS and socioeconomic support. Marisela is an orphan having lost both of her parents to AIDS. She lives with her aunt and cousins in a crowded barrack, a remnant of the old sugar plantation. Her family could barely afford to eat, never mind paying the costly transportation, tests, and medical attention that Marisela requires. Now, Marisela travels monthly to BRA’s new health center at Batey Cinco Casas where she receives complete treatment. Recently, Marisela along with several of our other HIV positive children spent a week vacation with Consuelo, a Pediatrician from the Clinton Foundation, in La Romana. Marisela is still underweight and suffers from bouts of depression, but we are addressing these problems by offering professional counseling and food aid. Her family also received a Biosand water filter and a mattress.

ESMERALDA
Twenty-four year old Esmeralda Pierre has three beautiful, dimple-cheeked children. She was already eight months pregnant with her youngest when she found out she was HIV positive. Later, I accompanied Esmeralda to Altagracia, the public women’s hospital in Santo Domingo to enroll in the national program for the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV. As we got off the bus, she tightly clenched my arm—this was the first time she had been to the capital and she was terrified. We spent the whole day in the hot, crowded hospital filling out paper work, getting blood tests, and paying for lab and registration fees. There were repeated jokes throughout the day made by program staff about her being Haitian (she is a black Dominican with Haitian roots). A month later, we returned to the Altagracia hospital where she spent a week in the ward waiting for a Caesarian while her nervous mother spent sleepless nights on a plastic chair in the reception room. At last, on June 28th she gave birth to a healthy boy. Esmeralda and her son both received a dose of the antiretroviral drug Nevirapine and her new baby Max is drinking infant formula provided by the government. Esmeralda must search for water in a stream near her house, but she conscientiously cleans the bottles and boils water for the milk. Little Max is growing fast and so far has had no health problems. Because of these interventions, the chance of Max becoming HIV positive is now very low. With the help of the AIDS Patient Fund, we were able to pay for Esmeralda’s transportation costs and accompaniment to Altagracia as well as food for her during her hospital stay and the hospital’s registration fees.

ANDRES
The blue baseball cap hung from the corner of his bed, the one he always wore driving passengers around town on his motoconcho—small motorcycle, before the chronic diarrhea and weight loss left him too weak to leave his bed. For an hour, I would encourage him to drink the calorie and protein-rich shake I’d made, feeling terrible as I watched his stomach convulse violently with each sip. Holding his boney hand, I tried to convince ANDRES that he was going to get better, that the antiretroviral drugs he was now receiving just needed time to work. Suddenly, I remembered a picture of him on his motorcycle I’d taken a few months earlier. “Just a few more weeks and you’ll be driving around again,” I said to ANDRES. Tears welled in his eyes when he saw the picture, but he managed a smile. Now as his motoconcho whizzes by in a cloud of dust, I am the one smiling. Five months ago, Andres began antiretroviral treatment with BRA through the support of the Clinton Foundation and the Dominican Ministry of Health’s DIGECITTS. He visits BRA’s new health complex at Batey Cinco Casas every month where he receives critical health care and essential medicines. The BRA’s AIDS Patient Fund also provides him with food aid for his family. Recently, ANDRES was one of 10 patients to receive a Biosand water filter donated by BRA. He has lost his wife to AIDS and takes care of two stepchildren and a handicapped daughter, all by himself. When he first joined our HIV/AIDS program, ANDRES had sold almost all of his possession, thinking he was not going to live. Luckily, he’d held onto his motorcycle. Now that he is healthier and can work for a few hours each day, he is supporting his family again. By saving ANDRES’ life, BRA is also able to protect the lives of his three children.