Project HOPE

Overcrowding, severe health problems and inadequate or nonexistent health facilities are a way of life in many communities across the Dominican Republic. Dominican mothers and their babies face difficult odds: this country has one of the highest neonatal mortality rates (babies who don’t survive past the first 28 days of life) in Latin America. According to the World Health Organization’s 2017 statistics, the number of neonatal mortality rates per 1,000 live births was 20.1, as opposed to the rate in the United States, which was 3.6. The number of these deaths can be reduced greatly with improvements to health facilities and equipment and increased staff training.