For many years the founders of Horizontes de Salud carried out medical operations on the north coast of the Dominican Republic in order to provide primary care services to the neediest populations, especially those who, due to limitations and barriers accentuated by poverty, they could not access quality health services. Our founders felt that in order to make a change in the lives of these communities, it was extremely important that they play a participatory and leading role in efforts to improve community health and create sustainable impact.
In 2009,
Horizons is founded as a registered 501c3 non-profit organization in the United States. In Connecticut, co-founders Craig Czarsty, M.D. and Brad Wilkinson, M.D, Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors respectively, joined forces to bring financial stability; while two of our co-founders, Laura McNulty and Angi Kang moved to the Dominican Republic for a year and were instrumental in registering the organization under Dominican regulations, as well as identifying community leaders interested in getting involved with our organization. Laura became our first Executive Director.
In this sense, Laura and Angi worked hard empowering community leaders and connecting with public health officials in the country to identify and train the first group of health promoters, a group of people in the same communities intervened who would be trained to contribute to the development of healthy and happy communities. As noncommunicable diseases began to overtake infectious diseases as the leading causes of death worldwide,
A chronic care program was created in partnership with the Ministry of Public Health to address conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and epilepsy. Early public health efforts focused on clean water and sanitation in the communities we serve.
Our programs and reach have expanded enormously over the past decade as we seek to promote public health and access to primary care as accessible and affordable rights in socially, economically and politically vulnerable communities in the Dominican Republic. We have counted many employees, interns, Talented, dedicated and visionary Board members, donors, partners and volunteers as HHI team members, who together have made our impact possible.Our model is unique to the Dominican Republic and continues to respond to cultural, economic, political, geographical and social areas of the country.
We are continually rethinking our operations from the perspective of development and international cooperation, human rights, social justice and access to basic needs, such as education and sustainable housing. In summary, we are examining the social determinants of health and how we can best address them.
Ten years later, what began as a dream has become a vehicle for change, social justice, equity and advocacy. We promote and defend access to health care as a human right for vulnerable populations around the world.