Pictures from trip to Batey 9, Barahona

I am not too good with trip reports, I hope the pictures tell you everything about the condition in which these people live and the need they have for help. Batey 9 is very hard to reach and unless you go specifically there you will never find it. It's inside the sugar cane plantations and the roads are very bad. We brought them bags with essential food and hygiene items, clothes, medicine, etc., it was not much, but it was as much as we could do. Each bag contained sugar, milk, oatmeal, sardine cans, cans of Vienna sausages, spaguetti, tomato sauce, toothpaste, 2 toothbrushes, chocolate bars, 3 bottles of water, etc., we brought 55 bags and distributed it among 55 families, I wish we had had more but we raised money within our company by carrying different fund raising activities.

The population in the Barahona bateyes is 90% haitian.

There's two sets of pictures, one from Batey 9 in Barahona, and the other from Bahoruco and San Rafael, where we went after we finished with the donations, we spent the night in Barahona.

Enjoy it.

Chirimoya said:

Marilyn forgot to post the link, but if you look up her previous posts you'll find links to her flickr site. Here's the set:

Batey 9, Barahona, Dominican Republic - a photoset on Flickr

Marilyn - congratulations on your generosity and on a job well done. It looks remarkably orderly - how was it managed? How were the recipients selected? Did you make prior arrangements with anyone in the community or did you just show up?

They are strong photos that tell a story and bring a lump to the throat, as well as helping restore a bit of faith in humanity.

Click to expand...

Thank you Ilana, I forgot to post the link.

I called the number you gave me in Barahona (Plan International) and they put me in contact with Beneco Enecia, sindico (mayor) of Batey 7, 8 & 9 and a member of other charity international organizations. I called him and we arranged to have him meet me in Tamayo and bring me to the Batey. On Saturday when I called he was in a emergency meeting but he sent someone to bring me to where he was in Batey 4; from there we drove to Batey 9, we went through sugar cane plantations and over train tracks on dusty roads until we arrived. Most of the terrain was dry already but you could see the signs of destruction from the storm flooding.

My daughter took all the pictures, that's why some are black and white and sepia, she's an amateur photographer.

The recipients were selected by Beneco Enecia and we could see that it was very fair. Only women and the elderly were selected, we had a group of 13 of his men protecting us and controlling the gate since a huge crowd was outside next to our vehicles, but they were very nice and we never felt threatened at all. We had heard on the news that vehicles bringing donations were being hijacked on the roads, but we never felt in any danger.

Thanks everyone, I feel that this is so little compared to the great need there is in this and other third world countries. There's so much money in this world and it's in the wrong hands.