NEW YORK. – The Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) is launching a multi-level, bi-national humanitarian mission trip from April 6th through the 24th to assess critical health and nutritional needs, deliver medical and nutritional assistance, and conduct deworming activities within the southeastern border regions of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

BRA’s CEO, Ulrick Gaillard said, “A team of experts and executives from the U.S-based partner nonprofit, Vitamin Angel Alliance will travel from the 6-11 to Dominican provinces of Barahona and Pedernales identifying children who are at great risk of malnutrition and provide them with multivitamins, food and antiparasitic medicines.” Gaillard added that the food distribution is part of a USAID-BRA collaboration to distribute annually 75 MT tons of dehydrated food commodities to children and their families severely affected by poverty, disease and hunger in Dominican Republic’s most vulnerable communities.

Meanwhile from the 10-24, BRA will bring to Haiti’s commune of Anse-a-Pitres a team of foreign dentists, faculty and assistants to deliver, collaboratively, with local Haitian doctors and nurses free dental and medical care to local residents, and multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines to school-aged children (2-12). “These activities are first steps we are taking to gradually establish with local and foreign partners a permanent humanitarian intervention at the border to address the health and socio-economic needs of the populations,” concluded Gaillard.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. – Dr. Ruben Silie Valdez, the new Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to Haiti, presented on March 4th, 2009 his diplomatic credentials to Haitian President Rene Preval who manifested “happiness” on Silie’s appointment. Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO added, “Ruben is a dear friend and a man of great character who has devoted years of his life to help the two countries address bilateral issues through mutual respect and understanding and confraternity.”

Silie joined the Batey Relief Alliance’s board of directors in 2001 where he played an important role engaging various sectors of the Dominican mainstream society in the work of the organization inside impoverished and vulnerable communities, including the bateyes. BRA is now expanding its humanitarian effort into border regions of Haiti where, as in the bateyes, socio-economic isolation has forced the populations to live in extreme poverty and under harsh conditions.

BRA honored Silie last year with a lifetime achievement award—“Assessor Ad Vitam” for his work in the fields of education, migration and diplomacy.

ANSE-A-PITRES, Haiti, March 7, 2009. – Eleven years after its successful humanitarian intervention in sugarcane plantations bateyes of the Dominican Republic, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) is now expanding its work into border regions of Haiti where socio-economic isolation has forced thousands to live under harsh conditions and in extreme poverty.

On April 11th, BRA will dispatch a 10-member team of foreign dentists, faculty and assistants to deliver free dental care and medicines to the population of Anse-a-Pitres, a small fishing commune located on the Southeast border with the Dominican Republic. 500 children between the ages of 2 and 12 will also receive multivitamins along with antiparasitic medicines to treat intestinal ailments.

“Last year, the organization held high level meetings with Haiti’s Ministry of Health and former Prime Minister, Jacques Edouard Alexis to present its plans and seek the government’s collaboration,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO. Currently, BRA is conducting a health-based assessment of the communities to obtain key data to design a comprehensive healthcare intervention. “The border regions of Haiti are as vulnerable as the bateyes of the Dominican Republic, and assistance in nutrition, healthcare, education and economic development is vital for the survival of the populations,” added Gaillard.