New York, New York— Starting August 15, 2009, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA Dominicana) will embark on another, yet, important project to distribute 75 metric tons of shelf-stable prepackaged food commodities prepared, stockpiled, and made available by Breedlove Dehydrated Foods, Inc. BRA will partner with more than a dozen key local government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community health promoters to distribute 8 million take-home food servings to 7,500 children and adults who are severely affected by extreme poverty, disease and hunger inside the bateyes, rural and urban slums and border communities of the Dominican Republic with Haiti. Recipients will come from various Dominican provinces including, Barahona, Dajabon, Hato Mayor, La Romana, Monte Cristi, Monte Plata, Pedernales, Santo Domingo and San Pedro de Macoris.

In its third year of funding–the USAID, through the support of the American people, completely financed the BRA Food Distribution Program with a generous grant of $288,075 of which, $173,100 goes toward the food commodities and $114,975 for the receipt, rapid transportation, delivery, and distribution of the commodities to the vulnerable populations, including HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis sufferers, pregnant women, the elderly and grandparents caring for orphaned/vulnerable children (OVC).

It is estimated that between 54 to 76 thousand children of less than five years—7.2-8.9% of the Dominican population, suffer from chronic malnutrition. And 27% of the population (or more than 2 million of the 8.9 million of the total population) is undernourished. “For the USAID and BRA, addressing food insecurity inside the Dominican Republic is critical in light of the current global economic crisis affecting millions in the world’s poorest countries,” said Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the Batey Relief Alliance.

The USAID/BRA Food Distribution complements two other BRA programs: the Micronutrient/deworming Program providing food to 55,000 children taking multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines, and the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment Program providing food to those who are malnourished and undergoing antiretroviral therapy or taking potent medicines to fight opportunistic diseases. Both programs are implemented in partnerships with the USAID-DR Mission, the Dominican Ministry of Health, the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Vitamin Angel Alliance.

For more information about this release, please contact the Batey Relief Alliance’s CEO, Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bateyrelief.org, or USAID’s Cognizant Technical Officer, Ben Vogler at bvogler@usaid.gov or 202.712.1809. You may also visit BRA’s website at www.bateyrelief.org or USAID’s at www.usaid.gov.