Here's our story:
I am currently a 4th year medical student spending a gap year in Santiago, Dominican Republic to coordinate Brown Medical School's Internal Medicine rotation here. I am working with Dr. Carol Lewis, a pediatrician at Hasbro Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, to bring a February group of undergraduates, medical students, and residents to La Romana.
This is a city in the south of the country close to many bateyes (resource poor sugar cane plantations where many Haitian-Dominicans live), where we would set up clinics daily to treat Haitian adults and children. Our "home base" would be the Good Samaritan Hospital in La Romana. What's great about the Good Samaritan hospital is that it also has an ongoing program of working with each batey to train ‘Promotors,' or local women trained in various aspects of health care and nutrition. Their principle duties include watching over the general health of their community, administering medications as needed, following up on treatments prescribed by medical teams, and public health education.
Some of the bateyes are also served through a malnutrition program available to children from birth through ages 8 or 9 depending on need. This program has reduced the incidents of infant mortality.
Dr. Carol Lewis has made this trip 8 times, and we would love to to go help with the great work she does.
Here is the Good Samaritan Hospital website: http://www.laromana.org/
The dates we are currently arranging for are February 6-11, 2011. We are trying to raise money to help with the expenses, which would include medications, translators, and travel.
We would so appreciate your help, no matter what. No amount is too small or frowned upon- we are all debt-laden students, so we understand how hard it is. Even just a dollar shows that you are in support of us. And if you can't give, please consider helping our cause by forwarding this to people you know.