NEW YORK, New York. – The New York Rotary Club’s Foundation has made a grant of $2400 to the Batey Relief Alliance to start a comprehensive water/sanitation program benefiting thirty impoverished families living in the bateyes of the Dominican Republic. The project will be coordinated in partnership with the DR-based Club Rotario Arroyo Hondo Santo Domingo, which also contributed $200 towards the project.

Thirty Biosand water filters will be purchased and placed strategically inside homes giving access to 740 residents living inside bateyes Cojobal, Cinco Casas, and Bosque Abajo in the province of Monte Plata. The project will complement two other BRA projects: Multivitamin/deworming providing multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines to 55,000 malnourished children and HIV/AIDS prevention and antiretroviral treatment for AIDS sufferers.

Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO and active member of the NY Rotary Club, explained that parasitic infections in the bateyes are a common cause of death in children under five and can also contribute to anemia and other serious health problems. Access to clean water is especially more problematic among our HIV/AIDS patients who do not have a hardy immune system to defend themselves against water-borne pathogens. Infection with multiple parasites is very common among these patients and can begin a downward spiral of weight loss that eventually leads to death.

Access to clean water for residents is a grave concern inside the bateyes, and a major source of illness in our patient population. With no potable water available, most batey residents rely on contaminated rivers, rain, or open wells as a source of water—all of which contain water-borne pathogens. In recent focus groups conducted by BRA, batey residents listed clean water as their number one priority. Based on BRA’s current statistics, 14% of patients who visit its clinics are seeking treatment for intestinal parasitic infections. “Not only will these filters impact the health of these patients directly, they will also improve the health of their family members caring for them and that of their neighbors, thus reducing local transmission of parasites and the cost for their basic medical care,” added Camilo Uy, President of the New York Rotary Club.

Each family that receives a filter will also learn about health and hygiene, how to care for their filters, and receive health services with free medicines and vitamins. BRA will also train community stewards to provide continued education and support for filter users.

For more information about BRA’s humanitarian health work in the Dominican Republic, please visit its website at www.bateyrelief.org or contact Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bateyrelief.org.

BROOKLYN, New York.- The New York State Department of Health (DOH) made a one-year grant of $10,000 to the Brooklyn-based Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) to carry out HIV/AIDS awareness and education targeting Haitian immigrants and others living in the Brooklyn’s section of Flatbush.

This is the second year BRA has received the funding through a Legislative Member Item of Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs of the 42nd Assembly District. “We know that there are many, many needs out there. In a series of programs, we will focus on health issues of our community in particular, in an effort to combat the drastic effects of HIV/AIDS. Ignorance and silence can be deadly,” said Assemblywoman Jacobs.

The message of HIV and AIDS is transmitted to the community via radio waves at the Flatbush-based Radio Soleil. Speakers who are Health and HIV/AIDS experts are recruited to speak to listeners in their mother tongue – Haitian Kreyol – about the danger of the virus and prevention. After each session, listeners are provided with phone numbers and referrals to receive HIV/AIDS-related materials, testing, condoms or treatment. “I am pleased to have the opportunity to join the Batey Relief Alliance in bringing a very important program of information and education to increase the well being and empowerment of our community,” added Jacobs.

The Batey Relief Alliance also implements, in partnership with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, USAID and the Dominican Ministry of Health, a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and antiretroviral treatment program inside the bateyes of the Dominican Republic.

For more information about the humanitarian health and HIV/AIDS work of the BRA, please visit the organization’s website at www.bateyrelief.org or contact Ulrick Gaillard at (917) 627-5026 or bra@bateyrelief.org.

NEW YORK, New York. – Batey Cinco Casas in the province of Monte Plata is the site chosen by the Batey Relief Alliance to celebrate its 10-year anniversary on October 23, 2007. More than 1000 people are expected to attend the festivities at the organization’s new medical center complex, including diplomatic, government and media officials, BRA’s personnel and boards of directors, local and international partners, and batey residents. The Dominican President, Dr. Lionel Fernandez Reyna, will be invited to attend as a guest of honor.

The Batey Relief Alliance will also use the occasion to inaugurate its HIV/AIDS Treatment Unit and a new Dental Clinic to be named after its donors, Dr. Thomas and Sara Beague. Special recognition awards will also be presented to founding members of the board of directors, outstanding employees and volunteers, and longtime partners who have contributed substantially and consistently to the advancement of the organization’s humanitarian mission.

Founded in the United States on October 23, 1997 by US-trained attorney Ulrick Gaillard, the Batey Relief Alliance, since then, has quickly developed into a competitive player within the international humanitarian circle. In just ten years, the organization has secured the partnership of dozens of key institutions, recruited hundreds of volunteers, and invested more than $50 million to deliver critical health services and essential medicines to more than 200,000 living in impoverished bateyes, urban barrios and rural slums of the Dominican Republic. In 2005, it received its most prestigious recognition from former US President, Bill Clinton, during a benefit concert organized in Philadelphia with members of the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras.

The Batey Relief Alliance’s track record also includes installing two modern medical facilities, the first and only kinds inside any batey, and starting the first comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and antiretroviral treatment program in the Monte Plata region; implementing major projects in tuberculosis, blindness, water/sanitation, nutrition and micronutrients, and preventive health education; and delivering a cadre of other health services in primary care, dentistry, gynecology, ophthalmology, pediatrics, counseling and laboratory.

Some of the celebration’s awardees include the USAID, Lions Clubs International Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, Catholic Medical Mission Board, Food for the Poor, Direct Relief International, Disciples of Christ’s Week of Compassion, the Ministry of Health (SESPAS), the State Sugar Council (CEA), the Canadian Fund, etc.