Dr. Jennifer Simpson shared her outreach experiences while on her annual mission to Dominican Republic this past spring.
HHART is an acronym for Haitian Humanitarian Assistance and Relief Team.
HHART 1, the first HHART mission, occurred in 2010. HHART 1 was an international service mission organized by the Rotary Club of Wasaga Beach (Ontario, Canada). Rotary Clubs from Innisfil, Midland and Lindsay organized HHART missions 2 thru 4 respectively. The Rotary Club of Wasaga Beach was the core club behind HHART missions 5 and 6 and, most recently, HHART 7.
The HHART 7 Team was comprised of 49 team members including 14 Rotarians representing 9 clubs, 3 Rotaractors, 25 health care professionals, 6 university level students and 3 “youth ambassadors”. 22 team members had previous international service experience with HHART. Local associates directly assisted the team in many ways. The associates included two drivers (Eduardo and Julio), 18 translators, 7 construction workers and 11 community health promoters.
The people who are the focus of HHART service missions. These residents of Dominican Republic were brought from Haiti generations ago to be sugar can cutters. However, they and their families have never been granted DR citizenship. They live in dilapidated communities in places like the end of the runway of the Puerto Plata airport. They have limited access to public school and public health care. They are not legally permitted to work. And, they are the object of flagrant and systemic discrimination. Estimates vary widely but there are between 500,000 and 1.2 million people like this living in the D.R
HHART mission HHART 7 deployed dozens of people and resources to the Dominican Republic from April 23 to May 14, 2016 to improve the lives of people, mostly of Haitian heritage by providing medical, dental and other community development services such as water filters, garbage collection, construction and education for students and the community. HHART members and citizens of 9 communities: Cangrejo, Poncho Mateo, Severe, Caraballo, Ascension, Negro Melo, La Union, Chicigua and Maranatha, benefitted from HHART 7 activities.
If you would like to learn more or would like to volunteer for this cause in the future please contact Dr. Jennifer Simpson.