While the joy of serving children and youth includes keeping a close watch on them to ensure their sustained holistic development, it also demands constant vigilance for potential threats. Coming from at-risk situations, those risks, particularly relating to their health, can quickly turn into a razor’s edge for our children.

“We have a visiting Service Team member from Seattle with a cough, fever, and a sore throat,” said the voice of one of our school directors reporting the issue via phone to Vic Trautwein, Country Co-Director of Kids Alive Dominican Republic (KA DR). Having hosted hundreds of visitors over the years to KA DR programs, and knowing how under normal circumstances travel and weather changes can be punishing, Vic might not have been too concerned. But that call was in March, and Dominican Republic had just reported its first case of COVID-19, even though at that time it had not been recognized as a pandemic-level threat in the Americas. COVID-19 still seemed distant, fuzzy, and transient.

Our forward-thinking health care team had already begun to spruce up the health care systems to ensure the protection of our 2,000 plus children and several hundred staff. But the call, like an alert from God, propelled our efforts into high gear and we switched operation into emergency mode. We urgently put into place precautionary policies and measures while fleshing out details. Hand washing and hygiene protocols went into immediate effect, followed by designated quarantine rooms and the development of educational material for all our schools. Those early decisions put us in the driver’s seat to stay ahead of the COVID-19 curve while responding to the unfolding crisis. We even got ahead of the Dominican government’s response to the epidemic! Two weeks later, the Dominican government ordered all schools closed and sealed the island from visitors.

We sealed our residential homes and quarantined all our residential children and workers on their campuses. Ever since then, our health care workers have been working diligently in various ways to protect our students, their families, and our staff from COVID-19.

These health measures paid off: all our residential kids at the time of this update are in good health. We are so grateful to God for honoring our decisions and actions.

All of this couldn’t have been possible without a robust health care team. We are blessed today to have a team that includes a pediatrician, nutritionist, five nurses, three dentists, and a medical student that help care for the over 2,000 children and youth in the 10 Kids Alive programs. But until a few years ago this was little more than a dream. “I recall a few startling events many years ago,” remembers Vic Trautwein. “A visiting dental team pulled out 114 infected teeth from the youth at one of our schools, and the family of a seven-year-old student was asked to find a guarantor for $1,000 before she could have emergency surgery for a ruptured appendix. We realized that with better organization and effort we could preemptively save not just teeth but, in some cases, lives.” Until a few years ago, better prevention, health education, good nutrition, and access to emergency care were only in the realm of possibilities, but now they are a pleasant reality for all our children.

Thanks to God and your provisions, the scope of medical services at Kids Alive Dominican Republic programs now includes:

  • First Aid capacity and local clinic relationships for each site
  • Regular dental care at four of seven schools with plans to add more
  • Menu assistance from our nutritionist at each site along with a supplemental program for underweight children
  • Assistance with chronic health conditions such as asthma and diabetes
  • Capacity for vision and hearing checks for each child
  • Educational material (including COVID-19 protection) for each site
  • Training of more than 30 of our workers in First Aid and CPR

Our goal is for every young person to leave our program with a healthy spirit, mind, and body,  having learned how to take responsibility for their own health.

An interview with nurse Mariel (Park School and Care Center)

Mariel Moronta has served as the school nurse and health care specialist at the Park School and Care Center in Caraballo for almost three years. She serves a population of children and youth who have little access to professional medical care and has been a huge blessing to many in this short time. She has a technical degree in nursing and has also received further training from Kids Alive in CPR, First Aid, dental hygiene, and social/emotional care. 

How are you helping children at the Park? 

I realized my very first day that there were many ways I could help. A youth named Pedro had a playground accident and came to me with a small, bleeding cut on his head. He was nervous because of the bleeding but it was nothing serious. I was able to calm him down and treat the wound. Moreover, I made a great positive connection with him that I have to this day. On a daily basis, I help children with basic medical needs and also run the supplemental nutrition program for underweight children. 

What is something that you like about your work helping atrisk kids?

Many of the children we serve do not receive the medical and emotional help that they need in their homes. I like to be there to meet these important needs. I also like to pray with them for their health which helps meet their spiritual needs and connects them better with God.

What has been your role during the COVID-19 pandemic?

In the first days of the pandemic, I was able to educate the parents and children about the risks and prevention of COVID-19.