Good morning,

Howard has asked me to make sure that you received news of his latest experiences during his travel to Dominican Republic. Notes from Howard's daily experiences, in his own words, are below. Pretty amazing!--Ashley

Greetings from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic!

Last year on October 31st when the first tropical storm hit (Noel), the villagers in Batey Yabacao ended up trapped on top of the two highest building in the village for 5 days. About 70 families live in the village with 532 children. The women showed us the high water mark which went about 5 feet up on the side of their homes - it destroyed much of the few possessions they have.

We're in Dominican Republic to start the 2nd year of our Dominican Republic Children's Nutrition Campaign with our partners Batey Relief Alliance (BRA). We are now reaching 55,000 children with a daily multiple vitamin and twice a year antiparasitics. Batey Yabacao is an expansion of our current program. We are here with James Plaugher, Robert Holmes, and Joan Moran, our friends from key program sponsor UNFI. Our colleagues and supporters Dr. Alan and Cheryl Green are here as well to see the program first hand and today distributed their new children's multiple vitamins and prenatals (the children loved the chewables!).

Click here to watch Howard in Dominican Republic right now!

When we asked the women of the village what they wanted, they immediately replied with two things; work (the sugar cane economy left this community over 10 years ago, with only minor agriculture and catching shrimp to support the families - and now the men told us that the shrimp have been decimated by a free trade zone 18 km away that is dumping dye from clothes manufacturing into the river - yields are down from a high of 50 pounds per day to only 5-7 pounds per day now) and education for their children. Interestingly this is the same thing that Greg Mortenson (Three Cups of Tea) told me last week when we met - when he asks women in Pakistan what is important to them, their second answer is always education for their children (their first is that their babies don't die, which I am sure the women in Batey Yabacao would agree with). People are pretty much the same all over the world - everyone wants a better future for their children.

Nutrition is the first cornerstone that is necessary to make education possible. Poorly nourished children cannot do well in school - ask any teacher and they will tell you; good nutrition lets kids think and focus and learn. There is a lot of work to be done and the children of Batey Yabacao started today with an important first step toward vital nutrition. We handed out and left children's multiples for all of the children in the village. Next week BRA will be coming by with a 3 month supply (and antiparasitics) to keep this program going. We look forward to working with this community for at least the next two years to begin building a base of sound health, so the villagers can begin building a better life for their community.

Best,

Howard

--
Howard B Schiffer
Founder & President
VITAMIN ANGELS

P.O. Box 42029
Santa Barbara, CA  93140

Ph: 805 564 8400
Fx: 805 564 8499
Web: www.VitaminAngels.org