MEDICAL AND SURGICAL TEAMSThe DRMP currently sponsors four medical/surgical teams per year who travel to the Dominican Republic to hold medical clinics, surgical interventions, and more.
Their patients are primarily the rural poor, living in the small sugar cane cutting communities surrounding La Romana called “bateys”. This is where the medical clinics take place—in these small, rural villages—usually inside of a school, a church, or in the open air if neither of those are available. DRMP surgical teams, on the other hand, spend their days at The Good Samaritan Hospital inside the city, providing life-altering surgeries for those who could not otherwise afford such care. What makes the DRMP unique is that unlike other one-and-done short term trips, this organization has designated six bateys as the official “DRMP Bateys”, and each team visits those same six bateys during their week-long trips. This allows for a continuity of care that is almost unheard of in such communities, and it allows the DRMP to provide better quality of care to those whom they serve. Many of the trip volunteers are doctors, nurses, and others with some sort of medical background, but the work is also open to those with no medical background who simply have a desire to go and serve. With the addition of the Education modules, the DRMP hopes to expand the volunteer population to even more non-medical personnel. |