Dominican Republic: Health Fair in El Cercado--May 23, 2012

Driving through a cattle drive on the way to El Cercado this morning

A gorgeous mimosa tree in full bloom

Today was a day of new experiences. Our group headed out to El Cercado, a community up in the mountains about an hour from San Juan de la Maguana. Solid Rock has both a school and a clinic in that community. The engineering/education team went to do another teacher workshop with the teachers from the El Cercado school. The pharmacy/nursing team ran a health fair that provided six educational stations about hypertension, wound care, basic CPR, nutrition, dental hygiene, and hand hygiene. The families of the children in the nutrition program came to the health fair and went to each of the six educational stations and then to three activity stations that were related to the educational sessions. They received vitamins, a basic first aid kit, hand sanitizer, and a toothbrush and paste. All received a snack, and children received a small toy, a coloring book, and a small backpack to carry everything in when they left.

MaryAnne Ventura, an entering fifth-year pharmacy student, checking a mother's blood pressure while her classmate, Stephanie Inkrott holds the mother's child.


Elizabeth Grant and Alyssa Leonard, ONU nursing students, at the wound care station.

One of the great stories of the day was seeing a child that we had first seen when we were last here this past November (2011). This little girl entered the child nutrition program at 13 months, weighing only 11 pounds. When we saw her, she was 15 months old and had gained three pounds to 14 pounds.

At 15 months, this child had managed to gain weight up to 14 pounds.

When we saw her today, she looked almost like a normal, health Dominican child, as you can see below.

The same little girl who weighed only 14 pounds in November now at a healthy weight.

These are the kind of success stories that really make the work we do exciting and rewarding--to see the change in one child's life. Catching the malnutrition issues before the age of 2 greatly decreases the chances of permanent stunting (short stature) as a result of malnutrition. So exciting!

We had a traditional Dominican lunch for the teachers at the teacher workshop. The lunch was Moro (rice and beans), Chen chen (a corn casserole-type of dish), Arepitas (Yuca fritters), chicken, pork, and salad. And it was amazingly good! However, not all Dominicans are able to enjoy pork and chicken on a regular basis. So for many of the teachers, this lunch was a treat with all of the meat available. Yuca is a starchy root vegetable also known as Casava or Manioc. There was a pick-up with a huge load, so hopefully you can get an idea from the picture below.