The North American NGO Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) reported the extension of its assistance program to the Guazumita batey, in the Yamasá municipality, with an investment of more than 12 million pesos.
This is an initiative that will benefit women in the areas of access to economic independence, health, and promotion of business activity through the planning, production, and sale of pigs and chickens in the local market.
The president-founder of BRA, Ulrick Gaillard, presented these programs during the celebration of the Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative 2022, and indicated that they will be implemented in collaboration with the NGO Catholic Outreach and the company Period Company (CROSS).
He stated that this project is a “commitment to action” that will last for a year and will also allow 96 girls and 120 women who live in this batey to have free access for the next 12 months to more than 30,000 menstrual products, clean water , nutrition and micronutrient items, medicines, dewormers, healthcare and HIV support.
“This project is unique and was integrated as part of a multifaceted regional health agenda in the Caribbean, in its time it faced multiple threats, and was on the front lines of climate change, reeling from the devastating health and economic impacts of the pandemic. , and under pressure from rising inflation and debt,” he said.
She recalled that, in 2021, BRA, in collaboration with the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, published the first Dominican Republic study on menstrual health and hygiene, which revealed that more than 20% of school-age girls in rural areas of the country missed 2 or 3 school days a month during their menstruation due to lack of access to sanitary pads.
The study provoked debates about the human rights of the country’s female populations.
