THIOTTE, Haiti. – Since 2010, the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) committed to organizing women’s groups in the Southeast border regions and helping them to identify and address issues of concern to local, regional and national elected representatives. Through a three-year USAID-funded Development Grants—Women Empowerment project, BRA facilitates more than 800 women with skills training and microcredit in the communes of Anse-a-Pitres, Thiotte and Grand Gosier. Part of the project also includes creating a regional platform network for the women to meet, organize themselves and hold political actions around issues of health, domestic violence, women’s rights, food insecurity, education and poverty.

On February 8, after two-and-a-half years of intense education and training, more than 2,500 women gathered and summonsed Senator Joseph Lambert, a senior politician from the southeast department, to answer questions and engaged him in issue resolution sessions. Other politicians were also present to face these women whom, for many, was their first time holding a community action against their local politicians or meeting with the super politically influential senator.

After hearing the complaints and demands, the Senator expressed his desire to improve the quality of education and health in the region. He committed to equipping BRA with kits of school supplies that will be distributed to the women and their families – and hiring additional healthcare personal at the local clinics.

In the week following the meeting, the Senator delivered 1,020 kits of school supplies to BRA, to be delivered to students attending primary as well as secondary schools. The Senator also arranged to have a nurse hired for one of the clinics. BRA plans to organize another meeting with the Senator – and one for the women’s groups with Minister of Women’s Rights and the Protection. With these relationships, the women are hopeful to see their problems discussed, solutions found, and progress made.

BATEY CINCO CASAS, Monte Plata. – Batey Relief Alliance / BRA Dominicana implemented the “Youth in Development” project, through which, it collaborated with the local Peace Corps to take actions to build the capacity of young people through sports, technical/employment kills training, and preventive health crisis education.

Five Peace Corps volunteers were involved in selecting the participants and finding with them the tools needed to address serious life’s issues affecting them daily, including HIV/AIDS, poverty, unemployment, education and stigma.

The two-year project took place inside bateyes Guasumita, Triple Ozama, El Cano, Antoncí and La Jagua, and had the objective to improve the quality of life for these young people, encouraging them not to give up and turn to life of violence and self-destruction, and raise their self-esteem.

So far, nineteen young men and women have graduated from the program.

Ninety five percent (95%) of all BRA’s staff working at its health and agricultural production installations in the province of Monte Plata lives or/and is born in a batey.

MONTE PLATA, Dominican Republic. – A team of 14 students and faculty from departments of Economics and International Business and Marketing at Marquette University’s Global Business Learning will travel to the Dominican Republic from March 11-18 to provide technical assistance and set up training workshops in a partnership effort to help the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) further develop its newly-established Food Security-cooperative agricultural production in the province of Monte Plata.

In 2009, BRA received funding from the US Department of Agricultural (USDA) to create a 7000-member cooperative to establish and manage seven crop and animal productions to produce food security and economic self-sufficiency for 37,000 people languishing inside impoverished rural batey communities.

During the seven-day mission trip, local farmers and cooperative leaders, partners and producers will share their experience with the students and foreign experts and learn from them best marketing and entrepreneurial practice skills in order to competitively produce and sell their products locally as well as regionally.

BRA’s agricultural cooperative, BRAteyana, is founding member of the Centro Agronegocios Esmeralda—the country’s first agricultural business consortium through which members will structurally market and sell their agricultural products to larger markets.

Support BRA’s agricultural production by making a donation online at DONATE.