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Dear friends, We are already entering April and many things have happened in these first few months of the year. First of all, the introduction of the COVID vaccines all over the world starting in the USA and also in our Dominican Republic. Cases are decreasing, but we must continue with the preventive measures of masking and distancing until new orders from the Health Authorities. We are in the process of establishing a new Foundation in the Dominican Republic to help in the distribution of funds and to be able to work better with the local Authorities in the DR. The President of this new Foundation is Elena Villeya de Paliza. It will be named Fundacion Dominicana para Madres y Niños and although independent we will be sister Foundations and always work in collaboration with each other. All of our programs have been working well during the pandemic, especially because of the very special Nurses and Physicians in the DR that are so dedicated to saving babies and their mothers. You can see the pictures in our website and social media. The Kangaroo Care Program now has 15 new Hospitals and we continue to receive pictures of these tiny babies that our wonderful Doctors and nurses are saving every day. The Pumani CPAP initiative is working well and we already have some numbers of how wonderful this low cost equipment is benefitting babies and preventing deterioration of their respiratory status and are able to be discharged home sooner. Project Hope has purchased 22 more and distributed throughout the south and Cibao and we hear wonderful feedback from the physicians whom we continue to train. We have a new project - this time with the intention of decreasing deaths for infection. We are working in the identification of Group B Streptococcus, the cause of most of early newborn sepsis, and the identification of the causes of all other newborn infections. These must be precise, fast and ready to detect. As fast as the first 24 hours of birth. We are still working in the follow up education of our Rural Nurses of the East and engaging them in every aspect of our programs .We believe that nurses are the backbone of the Medical Care, especially in areas of our country where the physicians are not always available. The Veron Project is improving in the early digital collection of data, which is time consuming and a challenge to implement. This is a very special Prenatal care unit, with a high percentage of foreign population that does not speak our language. Many mothers recently transferred from Haiti with poor health, severe anemias and in advanced stages of pregnancy. The goal is to improve their health as much as possible and send them for a happy delivery at Hospital La Altagracia of Higuey. The amazing medical and nursing personnel in Veron and Higuey make every day miracles in saving mothers and babies lives. And last but not least, we are starting a very needed collaboration with nurses, physicians and friends from our neighbor country of Haiti by transferring the programs that we have and are working well for us, in the hope that these too work well for their mothers and babies so they don’t have to travel long distances to get the medical care they so deserve. You can visit our website for more information. Please consider a donation to support these incredible efforts and programs of care. Thank you,
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