PIANTINI, Santo Domingo, DR. – Since 2005, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) developed a comprehensive HIV/AIDS program, funded by USAID/CONECA, delivering free healthcare, antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and medicines to hundreds of children and adults infected/affected by HIV and AIDS inside impoverished sugar cane batey communities in the province of Monte Plata. The program is implemented in partnerships with the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative and the Dominican’s Ministry of Health. “But one crucial component was missing in the program all along, until three years ago the USAID donated to BRA its first 75 MT tons of dehydrated food to distribute to patients at high risk of malnutrition undergoing ARV treatment,” said Ulrick Gaillard, CEO of the BRA.

In its third-year funding, USAID completely financed BRA’s food distribution program in the Dominican Republic with annual grants of $288,075 of which, $173,100 goes toward food commodities and $114,975 for the receipt, rapid transportation, delivery, and distribution of the commodities to more than 10,000 vulnerable people each year, including people lving with HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis, pregnant women, the elderly and grandparents caring for orphaned/vulnerable children (OVC). Click BRA.IFRP 2009-2010 Photo Album to view image. “The International Food Relief Partnership (IFRP) is a USAID Food for Peace Title II Initiative to support the production, stockpiling, transportation, delivery, and distribution of shelf-stable, prepackaged foods by U.S. non-profit and Public International Organizations. And we are glad to partner with BRA to help the people of the Dominican Republic,” said Ben Vogler, IFRP’s Program Officer.

The USAID food distribution program complements two other important BRA programs in the DR: the Micronutrient/deworming providing food to 62,000 undernourished children taking multivitamins and antiparasitic medicines, and the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment providing food to those who are malnourished and undergoing ARV therapy or taking potent medicines to fight opportunistic infections. “Proper nutrition has shown to have not only positive physical and psychological results on our patients, but also tremendous economic impacts on their communities,” added Gaillard.

Aside from distributing food to residents living of Monte Plata, BRA expanded the program’s reach by donating food commodities to a dozen local partner non-governmental and government organizations addressing food insecurity for impoverished populations in other far-reached vulnerable communities in other provinces and border localities.

But Gaillard concluded that while the USAID’s Food Distribution is a crucial program that continues to address food needs and save lives of thousands in DR’s communities, but the program could have even greater impacts on thousands more living in economically-isolated border communities in the neighboring Republic of Haiti recently ravaged by the mega earthquake that killed more than 300,000 and left 1.5 million homeless, sick and hungry.