A brief history

In 2008, Christopher Dove, Lara McKay, and Brian Hilliard, three Truman State University students, decided to take the plunge into global health. They were introduced to Enciende una Luz by Pamela Logan, who took a new and different approach to health education in the Dominican Republic (DR). Through the Enciende project, a group of musicians and actors affiliated with Maranatha Church filmed, produced, and screened a maternal health education film featuring topics relevant to maternal health education. The video marked the first widely viewed health education film made by Dominicans, for Dominicans.

Chris, Lara, and Brian wanted to determine whether the video was effectively communicating important maternal health information, such as risk factors for pregnancy. The film overwhelmingly succeeded in its educational objectives, and was screened to thousands of sugar cane field workers throughout the southeast DR.

The Enciende project and its contributors have witnessed dramatic changes in the intervening years. Lara McKay became Lara Hilliard, and Brian decided to keep his name. Denny Morachel and Sandy Meristal, two cornerstones of Enciende, are also now married. Enciende una Luz has now evolved into Fundación Enciende una Luz (FEUL), a non-profit dedicated to preserving the health and well-being of Dominicans through education and community outreach.

Now, led by Sandy Meristal, FEUL is undergoing its greatest expansion to date. Visits to the sugarcane communities continue, but three new initiatives have been added. First, FEUL recognizes the need to teach actively, and implemented a series of health fairs featuring interactive exhibits. Second, FEUL began a new needs-assessment tool called PhotoVoice to capture community strengths and weaknesses in the voice of community members themselves. Last, in partnership with the Hospital General Buen Samaritano (Good Samaritan Hospital), FEUL recently started neonatal resuscitation training with local health workers. To develop these projects, Lara committed to conducting her masters in public health thesis with FEUL, and Chris is moving to the DR in October to serve as a logistics coordinator.

We hope this blog will serve as a way for us to keep friends of the project informed about our progress. We have no doubt that we will encounter obstacles and failures, but will also have moments of success and triumph, and we want to share it all with you. We look forward to your support for greater access to health in the Dominican Republic!