Healing A Nation: CitiHope and Fundacion RICA partnership kicks off a

new health agenda for the Dominican Republic

CitiHope President Paul Moore Sr and Fundacion RICA President Dr. Julio Brache met in Santo Domingo, DR this August for a ceremonial agreement-signing, formally initiating an 18-month partnership to bring food and critically-needed medicines to some of the nation's poorest communities.

Fundacion RICA played an integral role in CitiHope's immediate relief after the January earthquake in Haiti, providing warehousing and transportation from Barahona airport to hospitals on the border. Since then, RICA has supported CitiHope's food initiatives throughout the Dominican Republic, assisting in the delivery of over 140,000 meals to malnourished children in orphanages, foster homes, and schools. Fundacion RICA is an initiative of Grupo RICA, the DR's leading dairy and juice producer. The foundation focuses on improving health, education, and the environment throughout the Dominican Republic. This Medical/Nutritional Relief Iniative marks RICA's first partnership with an NGO. Together, CitiHope and RICA will bring $30,000,000-worth of top-needed medicines, medical supplies, and food to the Dominican Republic.

Read more about CitiHope's vision for Healing A Nation.

Offering Refuge, Health, and Healing to IDPs in Kyrgyzstan

Since June, CitiHope has lead the USAID reponse to the ethnic-based crisis rocking Southern Kyrgyzstan. There are estimates of over 300,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and refugees from Osh, Jalalabad, and surrounding regions, the majority of whom are ethnic Uzbek. CitiHope's Bishkek Office coordinated rapid needs assessments and since mid-July have begun implementing a 6-month program to provide essential medical supplies, secure clean water and sanitation, offer individual and community psychological counsultations for trauma and PTSD, and provide mother-child reproductive health services. Many IDPs have moved from rural 'camps' into urban centers like Osh City, where CitiHope is deploying health workers, mental health professionals, psychologists, and trainers to reach the thousands of IDPs unable to return home.

See CITIHOPE'S SPECIAL REPORT ON THE CRISIS.

(Image courtesy AFP/Oxana Onipko)

Closing the Hunger Gap - 100,000 Meals at a Time

There's a name for these children: 'Ninos Buzos' - Scuba Kids. Scrounging around in trash heaps for food, rooting through dumpsters for scraps of clothing, these children belong to the poorest of the poor communities in Dominican Republic. For many, their best hope is to find enough food to make it to the next day.

Dominican Republic faces a serious wealth gap between upper and lower classes, and many impoverished urban neighborhoods and rural villages in DR are filled with Haitian families - immigrants and refugees still in desperate conditions after the massive earthquake in January 2010. Throughout the summer, CitiHope staff in Dominican Republic and Haiti have brought 115,000 meals to local orphanages, foster homes, and village-rebuilding projects to promote health and provide nutritional development.  Read the current report here.

Special thanks to our partners in this project, Stop Hunger Now and Fundacion RICA.

Read more about CitiHope's fight against malnutrition in Haiti and Dominican Republic.

A Vision for Africa: CitiHope Joins with the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation

to Promote Health and Prevent Disease Around the

Continent

This year, CitiHope is working with the Coca-Cola Africa Foundation to provide access to essential pharmaceuticals and medical supplies in public and community hospitals across Africa. CitiHope is working with Ministries of Health in Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, and Zimbabwe, as well as with high-level partnership with the First Lady Suzanne Mubarak of Egypt's cancer institute and Princess Lalla Salma of Morocco's Association Against Cancer. Read Coca-Cola's feature on CitiHope here.

Stay tuned for more information as our African country pages are developed!