Since the 2010 tragic earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people and left more than 1 million homeless, displaced, sick and hungry, BRA partnered with USAID, Haiti Ministry of Health, FONKOZE and internal aid organizations to implement various projects in health, food security and women economic empowerment benefitting more than 95,000 people living in the Southeast Department border communes of Anse-a-Pitres, Tiotte and Grand Gosier.

During his visit, Gaillard stressed the importance of creating sustainable development programs capable of producing real results in the lives of the people. He explored and developed new partnerships expanding his organization’s work into additional communities of Haiti, including one with Partners in Health (PIH) to distribute food to 12,800 nutritionally-at-risk vulnerable and impoverished people, including those living with HIV/AIDS/TB in Plateau Central, one with CENAREF to provide leadership training to 800 women in the Southeast department, one with UNIFA extending quality higher education to economically-challenged university students, and others with Southeast’s elected officials in agriculture, education and women’s social activism.

The objective of the Program is to improve the availability of pharmaceuticals and other disaster relief materials in response to emergencies on the island of Hispaniola. Items were selected based on the recommendation of medical professionals who were involved with relief efforts after the 2005 hurricanes in the Caribbean, Central America and the United States.

“We understand as the world keeps changing rapidly, we too need to be mindful of those changes and adjust our mission accordingly in order to meet the expectations of our stakeholders. Consequently it is crucial for our organization to be part of this global agenda,” said Gaillard.

BRA is also member of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) and Global Health Council (GHC), associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UN-DPI) and is a registered Public Voluntary Organization (PVO) with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

BRA was established in 1997 as a US 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, humanitarian aid organization with the mission to addressing socioeconomic and health needs of families in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly those with children who are severely affected by poverty, disease and hunger in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Peru. BRA focuses primarily on improving the health of poor rural populations through the provision of direct services and education, while endeavoring to empower the weak and protect rights, regardless of race, gender, creed, religion, national origin, or social status.

According to Discover Peru, “the rural population struggles with extreme poverty where surviving is the main priority. Illiteracy is as high as 22%, especially among women. Health and malnutrition are related to extreme poverty, lack of clean water and sanitation infrastructures.”

Puno, the capital of Puno Region and Puno Province, has an economy based on agriculture and cattle-raising. Unfortunately, both of these ventures present major obstacles and offer few rewards to those pursuing them. Peruvian native Andrea Vicich, founder and President of ACM, points out that many local inhabitants suffer from hunger and malnutrition and do battle with sub-freezing temperatures much of the year. She grieves that in 2010, shortly before she arrived with her mission team, 300 residents of Puno and nearby Juncal perished from cold and starvation.

In response to this crisis in Peru, ACM has asked BRA to offer its expertise in humanitarian and disaster-relief intervention and mobilize delivery of critical support for these socially and economically isolated people and their communities. And, from Oct. 20-26, 2012, BRA and ACM will co-host a joint aid mission to Puno, Juncal and surrounding areas.

During our visit, we will be furnishing life-saving healthcare intervention and food, medicine, clothing, blankets and other necessities to more than 500 residents, especially abused, abandoned and neglected children and youths. In addition, we will be offering cultural and interpersonal activities to the local population. Among these, Andrea will be presenting her live show, with children joining her onstage and singing and dancing among costumed characters, all of them sharing entertainment, laughter and love.

For this mission, volunteer medical personnel—cardiologists, nephrologists, neurologists, endocrinologists, neonatologists, pediatric surgeons, intensive care and reconstructive experts will be needed to work alongside local healthcare personnel in Puno Hospital. For more details and to join our BRA/ACM humanitarian mission trip to Peru, contact BRA’s CEO, Ulrick Gaillard, at ugaillard@bateyrelief.org or Andrea at andrealosangeles@yahoo.com.

Show your support for the impoverished and suffering children and youths of Peru. Join us and save a life! DONATE.

In addition to the microloans, BRA also arranged for its beneficiaries to attend classes on loan management, financial planning and decision-making. Furthermore, as BRA’s micro-credit and agriculture components team up, BRA provides classes for its beneficiaries on agro-business strategies and cooperative business practices. As a result, BRA has seen a handful of its beneficiaries begin to sell the crops (that their BRA-supported gardens and nursery produce) and turn a profit, to benefit the future of their businesses and their families. Through this business training, agro-business activities and micro-credit loans, BRA beneficiaries are showing great improvements with their entrepreneurships, and subsequently, with their socio-economic status and food security.

In the coming months, BRA and Fonkoze will begin distributing additional micro-credit loans in the municipalities of Grand Gosier and Belle-Anse. Additionally, financial and agro-business classes will continue to further equip beneficiaries in their business ventures.

The BRAteyana—the first major agricultural cooperative of its kind inside the Dominican’s vast sugarcane rural “batey” communities, was created in 2009 by the Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) in the province of Monte Plata, as part of the organization’s long-term objective to organize and empower the vulnerable and impoverished populations to become economically self-sufficient and have a voice in the system. The initiative is supported by the Dominican government and was funded by the US Department of Agricultural (USDA) with a two-year grant of more than $2 million to develop the 7,000-member cooperative with the tasks of overseeing the development of agriculture and infrastructures within seven batey communities – and providing adequate food supplies and health services for 36,000 people.

The cooperative’s new governing structure consists of a Managing board (seven members), Credit committee (four members) and a Supervisory council (five members). Its new plan includes increasing membership, providing more credits to local farmers to improve their agricultural activities, and increasing crop and animal production to competitively meet local as well as export demands.

The cooperative’s membership welcomes everyone, regardless of race, gender, creed, national origin, economic status or political affiliations. While born in the batey—a traditionally overlooked and abandoned territory of the DR, the cooperative, however, attracts a wide range of members from different socio-economic backgrounds.

For more information on how you can support the empowerment of the impoverished people of the Dominican Republic and their cooperative, please donate online at https://www.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=11-3403494. Follow/like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Batey.Relief.Alliance.

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.

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.

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.

A team of 25 students and faculty will travel to the Dominican Republic from March 8th through 15th to remote rural villages of batey Porvenir located in the province of Santo Pedro de Macoris where they will install a mobile eye care clinic. Hundreds of children and their families with eye problems, including cataract or glaucoma will be tested on their vision and receive free prescription eyeglasses and essential medicines to complete their short-term treatment.

The majority of the patients are former Haitian cane cutters who are old and going blind without health insurance or a pension and too poor to afford basic eye care and a pair of eyeglasses; young children who need corrective eye care to preserve their eyesight; and poor working-aged people who will use the opportunity to receive eye care and eyeglasses free of charge.

The team, in its sixth mission trips, is fully equipped and self-sufficient, and travels with sophisticated equipment, thousands of dollars in medicines and antibiotics, eye drops and eyeglasses. BRA DOMINICANA and the local Lions Club Arroyo Hondo Santo Domingo will coordinate the intervention.

Support BRA’s blindness prevention program by making a donation online at DONATE.