BACKGROUND:
Here is the story of this fascinating and exciting mission, which changes the lives of Americans who go to the DR every bit as much as it helps the people there. Since the early 1990’s, groups of volunteers from Central Massachusetts have been making the 1,300-mile trek to another world and culture in the island country of the Dominican Republic, and the city of La Romana. Home to famous baseball players, the DR is also home to many who are desperately poor. Some are also second-class citizens even in this culture, because they are Haitian in origin—coming from the even poorer country on the other side of the island.
Haitian Cane Cutters
Haitians are among the poorest people anywhere in the world, and as immigrants in the Dominican Republic often have little or no legal status or rights. Cutting sugar cane is back breaking seasonal work, which Dominicans refuse to do. Haitians have fled the tyranny of previous governments and the oppressive poverty of their homeland, or sometimes were captured and sold to work in the sugar cane fields. Bateys, or cane-cutter’s villages, are found wherever cane is grown. The residents are almost all of Haitian descent and most have no means of returning to Haiti. Lacking citizenship papers or documentation of any kind, the braceros, as they are called, are trapped in the bateys where they perform back-breaking labor and live in sub-standard housing. They own no land; even their houses are owned by the company for whom they work. During the safra, or harvest season, which lasts only about half the year, a good worker cutting for 9-12 hours will typically be paid $4-$7 per day. Employment opportunities for women are limited to gleaning fields, or cooking and cleaning for men. Young boys frequently cut cane alongside the men. The braceros’ families lead a grim, often desperate existence.
A Church and Hospital Serving the Poor
La Romana is a city of over 100,000 in the southeastern part of the country, surrounded by sugar cane fields. The Haitian Missionary Baptist Church of La Romana has been serving the large Haitian population there since 1922. Until his untimely death in 2001, Pastor Jean Luc Phanord established churches in the rural bateys surrounding La Romana, working tirelessly to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the Haitian immigrants. Under the leadership of Pastor Marc Massenat the work of the Haitian Missionary Baptist Church (H.M.B.C.) has continued to thrive and grow. They have established schools to teach basic academic skills and a growing sewing school to help equip the women with marketable skills. There is also an exciting scholarship program to help the young adults of the churches to obtain skills in administration and medical fields. Today, the church consists of 21 congregations with about 1000 members. Most of these are located in bateys outside the city of La Romana, with a large central church in the city.
The dream for the Good Samaritan Hospital began back in 1987 with Pastor Phanord and an American volunteer, Rodney Hendrickson...prayers were said, land was purchased, more prayers were said, and construction began in 1991, with teams of American volunteers coming to work for a week at a time. “Construction” consisted of digging holes by hand in the rough, coral-rock ground to make a home for the footings that would, a decade later, hold up a two-story hospital—built literally one block at a time.
Based totally on support from a number of churches across the United States, little by little, the hospital took shape. On November 9, 1997 the doors of The Good Samaritan General Hospital were opened. The following year, the “Good Sam” provided medical service to 10,000 people, despite the inability of many patients to pay for their services. In 2002, this figure had quadrupled to an estimated 48,000 people receiving medical care, from treatment of minor infections to life-saving surgeries. In the spring of 2004, the hospital completed its new dialysis unit, providing care for up to 6 persons at a time, thanks to equipment donated from Texas. It is now the only hospital east of Santo Domingo providing dialysis care.
The primary mission of Good Samaritan Hospital was initially to serve the families of Haitian sugar cane workers, who often have little or no access to health care. Today its staff is providing open access to basic health care for the poor in the La Romana region regardless of age, religion or nationality. This includes both Haitians and Dominicans, in the city and rural areas alike. Achieving a high degree of self-sufficiency for the mission and its outreach is an important priority for both the Haitian Missionary Baptist Church and its partner congregations in the U.S.
The Rev. Shantia Wright-Gray
Mission Educator and WAYS Coordinator for
Tthe Worcester Area Mission Society, UCC
shantiawg@gmail.com
978-422-6256 home/office
508-450-2001 Cell
48 Main St.
Sterling, MA 01564
