SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic, August 15, 2009. —The Batey Relief Alliance is launching this month a third year of food aid—distributing 75 metric tons of food products in the Dominican Republic, with the financial and technical assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

This program, under the USAID’s Food for Peace-International Food Relief Program, responds to the steps already taken by the Dominican government to address the current food crisis and reduce malnutrition among vulnerable people. It is estimated that 54 to 76 thousand children of five years—between 7.2 and 8.9% of the Dominican population, suffers from chronic malnutrition. 27% of the total population (more than 2 million of the 8.9 million) is undernourished.

Through this program, 4 million dehydrated food rations will be distributed to 7,500 children and adults severely affected by poverty, disease and hunger in the bateyes, urban barrios and other impoverished rural and frontier communities. The program, for which USAID donated $288,075.00, with the generous support of the American people, benefits those at critical risk of malnutrition, including people living with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, pregnant women, vulnerable/orphaned children, and the elderly. “It is a simple equation—you can not talk about providing quality healthcare to the poor without ensuring equally that they have food in their stomach,” said Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the Batey Relief Alliance.

Batey Relief Alliance’s field organization, BRA Dominicana, implements the project with governmental and non-governmental strategic partners, including the Dominican’s Presidential Council on HIV/AIDS (COPRESIDA), General Directive for the Control of Infections and Sexual Transmissions and AIDS (DIGECITTS) and Ministry of Health (SESPAS), the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative, Social Services of Dominican Churches, and others. Those partners along with hundreds of community health promoters will educate about health and proper nutrition and help distribute food in nine provinces, including Santo Domingo, Monte Plata, Hato Mayor, Barahona, Pedernales, La Romana, Dajabón, Monte Cristi, and San Pedro de Macoris.

The food aid program complements two other important Batey Relief Alliance projects: the Children’s Health Campaign, in partnership with Vitamin Angels, distributing multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines to 55,000 children, and the HIV/AIDS, in partnerships with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Ministry of Health, providing healthcare, medicines and antiretroviral therapy to patients to fight HIV and AIDS and opportunistic infections. “Food is a vital element that, when it is combined with good healthcare, can transform people and communities,” added Gaillard.

For more information about this release or how you can contribute to the Batey Relief Alliance’s projects, please contact Ulrick Gaillard at bra@bateyrelief.org.

MONTE PLATA, Dominican Republic. – The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) along with the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) inaugurated this past July two new water systems inside sugarcane bateyes El Bosque Arriba and La Cerca in the province of Monte Plata.

The water systems were built by BRA and generously financed by the Presbyterian Church-USA. “The water will benefit more than 1500 people who live in extreme poverty with limited access to clean drinking water,” said Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO. Gaillard added that most affected by drinking contaminated water have been the children and people living with HIV/AIDS for their weak immune system.

Three committees inside the bateyes have also been formed to help protect and maintain the water systems, but also to educate the community about proper hygiene and sanitation, and the importance of consuming clean water for the prevention of diseases.

Cornelius Brading, president of the SDOP expressed great satisfaction for the support his group has provided to build the water systems, and thanked the community for the opportunity to serve them in this small way—but also through this great initiative that will help reduce skin and intestinal-related parasitic ailments, thus contributing to a better quality of life for hundreds of vulnerable children and their families.

SANTO DOMINGO, August 6, 2009. – During a brief visit in the Dominican Republic to hold a conference at the largest Dominican University (USAD) and an art exhibition at the Ajoupa Gallery, Frank Etienne—a Nobel Prize candidate, who is also a poet, musician and painter, met privately with Ulrick Gaillard, BRA’s CEO to discuss the organization’s humanitarian work in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Also at the meeting were BRA’s Executive Director, Maria Virtudes Berroa and BRA’s International Medical Director and Board Member, Dr. Raymond Thertulien. CLICK to view images.

Having published more than 30 plays, poetry collections, and works of prose fiction, Frankétienne is widely heralded as one of the most important figures of modern Haitian literature. Some of his work, written under Haiti’s Duvalier dictatorship, depicts the plight of a segregated and oppressed society that has been a source for the largest migrations in history, leaving one of the most horrifying and saddest traces in its eagerness to reach better horizons. Frank Etienne’s work has been studied in many countries in Europe, the Caribbean and the United States.