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Peace Corps volunteers say that they are given two projects, the first one is what they are sent there to do, and the second is what they find once they get there. This is the story of that second project. One night, about one month after I arrived, I was asked by the improvement committee, a group of concerned local citizens. The group had successfully petitioned the government for needed social services like water, improved electricity, street lights. After they told me the story of the clinic, I offered to help.
Clinica Ana Cruz has been an integral part of life in Gurabo, Santiago for over thirty years. To me, she is a "living example of how sustainable development projects can only come from the people.
Serving a population of 32,000, the clinic serves as a triage station, performing basic blood tests, diagnosing diagnosing and treating the less serious cases while performing community outreach. This keeps the rural population mostly from towns north between Santiago and Puerto Plata from funneling into the already overburdened health system in the cities.
She was originally built and operated as part of President Kennedy's, "Alliance for Progress" Program in the early 1960's. Later in the decade she worked under the banner of CARE. In the 1970's Ana Cruz operated under Canadian administration with a visiting nurse.
Closed in the early 1980's she quickly fell into disrepair. by 1986, all the plumbing and electrical fixtures had been removed. Doors and windows damaged,paint peeling, roof leaking.
The community organized a cleanup. Collections taken to reinstall the water and electric.
Another volunteer, Marsha Redlich and I worked with the people to send a
proposal to the Dutch Catholic Church, who approved a grant for construction materials.
At a school in the mountains north of San Pedro, half way between Santiago and Puerta Plata, we found dental equipment left over from a cancelled development project.
After some pushing back and forth, the equipment was sent to us and we installed it at the clinic.
Juan "Pepito" Frias Chairman of the board of
directors,
with "liberated" dental chair
I negotiated an agreement with the head of the regional health service to have medical students fulfill their residency requirements at the clinic under a doctors supervision.
The medical students took the hint from us and successfully lobbied to have small lab for blood work be set up in the clinic.
The clinic has been running under a local board of directors since 1986. Medical supplies are sent by Dominican Americans throughout the U.S.
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