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The Good Samaritan Mission Council, Inc. is a Christian faith based ecumenical organization focused on supporting the programs and activities of the Haitian Mission Baptist Church and the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation in the city of La Romana in the Dominican Republic. Our organization is supported entirely through the unselfish efforts of the more than 2,000 volunteers that have generously given of their time and financial support over the past twenty years.
In 2001 GSMC was organized as a 501 (c) (3) charity to provide support and assistance to individuals and groups traveling to La Romana to volunteer in the various work and outreach programs of the church and hospital.
Our work in La Romana covers a wide range of activity organized into three major initiatives: Construction, Medical Assistance, and Education.
Construction
The earliest construction project started in 1986 with the building of a new church for the Haitians living in La Romana. In 1989 we broke ground for the Good Samaritan General Hospital, which continues under construction today.
In addition to the hospital, which is our major project, we have built several schools and more than 20 church/community buildings in the sugar cane villages, called ‘bateys’, that surround the city of La Romana. We are also working with communities in San Pedro de Macouris and the barrio of Los Colinas.
In addition to the hospital project work teams continue to build two or more batey schools or community buildings each year.
Medical Assistance
Providing medical aid to people living in the bateys pre dates our earliest construction projects. The vision for the hospital grew out of the need realized by the early medical volunteers. Like construction activities, medical assistance is provided in two major areas, the hospital and the bateys.
Good Samaritan Hospital
In 1997 the hospital opened for medical care. Since that time it has grown to a staff of more than 50 medical care professionals with a support staff of more than 35 trained technicians and administrative personnel.
It provides care to more than 40,000 patients annually with over 30 departments specializing in areas of care. There are two surgery rooms staffed with the best surgeons in the city. These facilities are also used by such US based teams as LEAPS. Other than general surgery doctors perform laparoscopic and eye surgery. The largest dialysis treatment center outside of the capital city of Santo Domingo is located at the hospital.
Batey Medicine
Teams of volunteers, joined by hospital staff doctors, nurses, and interpreters visit more than 100 sugar cane communities each year. They serve a population of over 100,000 people that otherwise would have no medical care available. Since our involvement, which started over 20 years ago, the health of the men, women, and especially children has steadily improved.
Supporting the efforts of medical teams a network of ‘Promotors’ has been established in approximately half the bateys we visit. ‘Promotors’ are local women trained in various aspects of health care and nutrition. Their principle duties include watching over the general health of their community, administering medications as needed, following up on treatments prescribed by medical teams, and public health education.
Some of the bateys are also served through a malnutrition program available to children from birth through ages 8 or 9 depending on need. This program has reduced the incidents of infant mortality.
Education
We have been engaged with education since the early 1990’s when we built our first school in one of the barrios of San Pedro de Macoris. This six room school enrolls 200 - 300 children annually. We have also supported the scholarship program through the local church for those candidates interested in pursuing an education in medicine.
A second school has been established in Batey 35 outside La Romana and a third is being constructed the barrio of Las Colinas on the outskirts of San Pedro.
There are state run schools for children up to the sixth grade. These schools are poorly staffed, overcrowded, and woefully lack even the basic essentials for education. Most of these schools have no electric power and rely on the most basic teaching principles for Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. In an effort to improve these conditions we have begun a new initiative called ‘Sugar Cane Kids’. The goal of this program is to bring more teaching materials into the batey schools by raising the awareness of the situation through programs in public schools and civic groups in the United States.
We operate on something less than a shoestring budget, if there is such a thing. The primary funding comes from those that join a group of volunteers in one of the more than 30 groups that travel annually to the region. For more information please visit other area of this web site or contact us via info@laromana.org. You may also view a brief video of our activities.
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