A Caribbean Retreat Campus That Has Become a Center for Medical Mission Work
In the northern Dominican Republic, an expansive Catholic retreat campus is serving a purpose that reaches far beyond spiritual renewal. The Institute for Latin American Concern, known as ILAC, has become a year-round hub for medical missions, student formation, rural healthcare outreach and cross-cultural service.
Located in Santiago de los Caballeros, ILAC welcomes volunteer physicians, surgeons, nurses, dentists, students and support staff from the United States and other countries. They come to provide care for patients in urban neighborhoods, remote mountain communities and underserved settlements near the Haitian border.
The work is grounded in a setting shaped by Ignatian spirituality. The campus was established in the 1970s by two Jesuit missionaries originally from Cuba, and its approach continues to combine practical service with reflection, prayer and community.
For many volunteers, the experience is not simply a short-term medical trip. It becomes a place where professional skills meet personal vocation, where students encounter the realities of global health care, and where patients receive services that may otherwise be inaccessible.
A Mission of Healing Rooted in Spiritual Life
Medical teams at ILAC operate in an environment that blends clinical work with a distinctly faith-centered rhythm. Volunteers may spend their days in pediatric clinics, family medicine consultations, surgical settings or dental stations. In the evenings, many gather for ecumenical reflection, prayer and discussion about the day’s work.
Benedictine Father James Raber, chaplain at Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, experienced that combination firsthand when he traveled to the Dominican Republic with student volunteers.
He initially asked whether he could bring three or four Belmont Abbey students to take part in an annual medical mission. Instead, organizers offered a dozen places. The unexpected invitation gave him an opportunity to bring a larger group of students into direct contact with patients and health professionals.
Father Raber joined a larger delegation of American medical volunteers working through Mission ILAC. While the student group remained for less than a week, the time was enough to offer students a close view of the medical, social and spiritual dimensions of service.
As a priest, Father Raber’s role extended beyond accompanying the students. He celebrated Mass, led ecumenical reflections and heard confessions during quieter periods in the evenings. He also spent time in pediatric clinics, meeting young families who had often registered months in advance for an opportunity to see a medical professional.
The mission also includes pastoral care for patients facing surgery. Those preparing for procedures can receive the sacrament of anointing of the sick, offering comfort and spiritual support at a vulnerable moment.
For Father Raber, one of the most meaningful parts of the experience was seeing students interact with patients. Those encounters can make the realities of healthcare inequality far more immediate than anything students might learn in a classroom.
Serving Communities Beyond the Reach of Traditional Care
Mission ILAC’s work is particularly significant because of the communities it serves. The Dominican Republic has major urban centers with hospitals, clinics and other health resources, but many rural areas remain underserved.
In the country’s northwestern region, there are mountain villages and isolated settlements where medical care can be difficult to reach. Some communities include Haitian residents living without documentation, adding another layer of vulnerability. These populations may have limited access to government programs, private healthcare providers and transportation.
Mission ILAC coordinates outreach to locations where few, if any, other organizations regularly provide care. Medical teams sometimes travel hours by car on difficult roads to reach patients who cannot make the trip to Santiago de los Caballeros.
The campus also maintains a network of local community leaders known as “cooperadores de salud,” or cooperators of health. These men and women come from rural communities themselves and help promote access to healthcare, health education and improved agricultural practices.
Their work recognizes that wellness is not limited to a doctor’s visit. Health is deeply connected to nutrition, employment, transportation, education and a community’s ability to remain stable. By supporting better agricultural techniques and local self-sufficiency, the program seeks to strengthen rural communities and reduce pressure for families to migrate to cities.
This challenge is especially important in the Dominican Republic, where an estimated four-fifths of the population now live in urban areas. Rapid urbanization has placed heavy strain on infrastructure, housing, transportation and public services. Many Dominicans have also emigrated from the country over recent decades in search of economic opportunity.
For rural families, access to local healthcare and sustainable livelihoods can make a meaningful difference in whether they are able to remain in their home communities.
A Gathering Place for International Volunteers
ILAC has developed into a meeting point for medical professionals and students from a wide range of backgrounds. Volunteer delegations include doctors, nurses, dentists, surgeons, pharmacists, interpreters, health educators and logistical support teams.
The missions bring together people at different stages of their careers. Experienced physicians may have decades of practice behind them, while students may be taking their first steps toward a future in medicine, nursing, dentistry or public health.
That mix is one of the strengths of the program. Students gain the opportunity to learn directly from skilled professionals in real clinical settings. At the same time, seasoned physicians can share not only medical knowledge but also the humility, patience and cultural awareness needed to care for patients in unfamiliar circumstances.
Student doctors, nurses and other trainees frequently describe overseas medical experiences as formative moments in their professional lives. They encounter health conditions that may be more advanced than those commonly seen in American clinics. They also learn to work within limitations involving equipment, testing, transportation and follow-up care.
These situations demand careful judgment. Medical volunteers cannot always rely on the same systems that support healthcare practice in the United States. They must listen closely, examine thoroughly and consider what can realistically be done for a patient who may live hours from the nearest hospital.
The experience can encourage a broader understanding of medicine. Rather than viewing healthcare solely through technology or specialized testing, volunteers learn to appreciate preventive care, patient education, strong clinical observation and long-term relationships with communities.
Student Volunteers Discover a Sense of Vocation
For many students, a mission trip to ILAC becomes a turning point.
Katherine Calvet was one of the Belmont Abbey College students who traveled to Santiago de los Caballeros. She made several mission trips there and said the experience helped shape her educational decisions while she was still a freshman.
Calvet initially saw the trip as an opportunity to serve the people of the Dominican Republic and to express her desire to help others. But the experience quickly became more personal. Working alongside physicians gave her a firsthand view of the medical profession, and she said she fell in love with medicine within her first two hours of working with one of the doctors.
She is now an undergraduate student at Florida State University, carrying forward the interest in medicine that was strengthened through her service in the Dominican Republic.
Her ILAC trips were organized in connection with the Miami-based Cuban Association of the Order of Malta. The association conducts missions twice each year, providing outpatient surgery, pediatrics, family medicine, cardiology, dentistry and other services.
In triage, Calvet encountered patients with serious health concerns, including very high blood pressure and dangerously elevated blood glucose levels. Such conditions can be managed with consistent medical care, medication and lifestyle support, but they can become life-threatening when diagnosis and follow-up are limited.
For students, seeing these cases firsthand can deepen an understanding of chronic disease. Hypertension and diabetes are common around the world, yet their effects can be far more severe in communities where people have limited access to regular appointments, laboratory testing, prescription medications or reliable transportation.
The experience also teaches students that patient care is about more than diagnosing a condition. It involves listening to people’s stories, understanding family circumstances and respecting the challenges patients face in following treatment plans.
Experienced Physicians Return Year After Year
Some of the medical professionals who volunteer at ILAC have been returning for many years. Their long-term commitment helps create continuity and trust, both within the volunteer community and among local patients.
Dr. Grant Phillips, associate director of a residency program at Altoona Family Physicians Residency Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, has been coming to ILAC for roughly 10 to 15 years.
During the mission, Phillips takes part in patient consultations while also training student volunteers. His role reflects the educational value of the program: students can observe experienced doctors not only treating patients but also explaining their clinical reasoning and modeling respectful communication.
After long days of medical work, volunteers gather for an ecumenical debriefing in ILAC’s chapel. These sessions provide time to process what they have seen, share difficult moments and recognize the humanity of both patients and caregivers.
Phillips described feeling gratitude toward the patients, who carry the burden of illness, as well as toward those who made it possible for him to serve in the Dominican Republic.
His reflections point to an important reality of medical mission work. Volunteers may arrive hoping to help others, but they often leave aware of how much they have received. Patients, families, local staff and fellow volunteers can all offer lessons in perseverance, generosity and resilience.
For physicians who spend their professional lives in demanding healthcare systems, such experiences can restore a sense of purpose. They can reconnect with the personal side of medicine and with the reasons many people first entered the profession.
Reaching the Campos and Mountain Villages
While the ILAC campus provides a central location for clinics and educational programs, some teams travel far beyond Santiago de los Caballeros.
The Dominican countryside, often referred to as the campos, includes communities that may be separated from medical centers by long distances and difficult roads. In some cases, reaching a village requires several hours of travel on steep and poorly maintained mountain pathways.
Dr. Jane Cohen, a primary care physician at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, has made 31 trips to ILAC with the Order of Malta. She pays her own expenses to participate, an indication of the personal commitment many long-term volunteers bring to the mission.
Cohen has made it a priority to take part in ILAC’s ecumenical sessions, where volunteers discuss their experiences and reflect on their work together. She has also expressed gratitude for the support of her husband, who understands her desire to spend vacation time serving in the Dominican Republic, including in places with little communication access.
On one outreach trip, Cohen traveled three hours by car up a rough mountain road to reach a community whose residents either could not travel to the mission or needed care closer to home.
The community had 56 people, and the medical team saw approximately half of them as patients. On the following day, the team visited two communities of Haitian residents living without documents.
For people in such isolated settings, even a basic medical visit can be significant. A clinician may identify uncontrolled diabetes, high blood pressure, infections, untreated pain, pregnancy-related concerns or other conditions that have gone unaddressed because no local healthcare provider is available.
The visits also give medical teams a better understanding of how patients live. Seeing the distances, roads, homes and daily conditions of rural communities helps volunteers understand why a patient may have difficulty attending follow-up appointments or obtaining medication.
Learning the Value of Prevention and Clinical Judgment
Cohen has also used the ILAC missions as teaching opportunities for medical students. One of the most important lessons she shares is the need to recognize the progression of disease without overreaching for solutions that may not be practical or necessary.
In many healthcare environments in the United States, patients with concerning symptoms may be sent quickly to emergency rooms or referred for multiple tests. Advanced testing and specialist care can be invaluable, but the abundance of resources can sometimes make it harder for students to appreciate the importance of careful office-based medicine.
In mission settings, volunteers must often rely more heavily on observation, history-taking, physical examination and a thoughtful understanding of which interventions will most benefit the patient.
Cohen noted that primary care services are often best delivered in ways that prevent illness from becoming severe enough to require hospitalization. That approach is especially relevant in communities where hospital care may be distant, expensive or inaccessible.
Preventive medicine can include blood pressure checks, diabetes screening, education about nutrition, medication guidance, prenatal counseling and early recognition of conditions before they become emergencies.
This focus does not diminish the need for surgery, specialty care or hospital treatment. Instead, it highlights the importance of building stronger foundations for health. When patients can access consistent primary care, many serious complications can be prevented or reduced.
For students and younger clinicians, these lessons can reshape their understanding of what effective medicine looks like. It is not always about doing the most tests or offering the most complex intervention. Often, it is about meeting a patient where they are, identifying the most urgent need and creating a plan that can actually be carried out.
Expanding Educational and Community Partnerships
ILAC’s role has also expanded through partnerships with universities and other educational institutions.
Students from Ivy League schools and other American colleges have used the campus for Spanish-language study, medical training and enrichment programs. The site offers a setting where academic learning can be connected directly to local realities.
Jesuit-run Creighton University has been particularly active at ILAC. Earlier in the year, the university opened a 3,000-square-foot, high-technology classroom and community space on the campus.
The new facility is expected to broaden opportunities for student engagement in research, economic development and environmental sustainability across Dominican communities where Creighton already has health partnerships.
Such initiatives demonstrate that international service can include more than short-term clinical work. Sustainable engagement may involve public health research, language training, community development, environmental projects and long-term collaboration with local leaders.
Education is especially important because it helps develop future professionals who understand that health outcomes are shaped by social and economic conditions. Medical students may learn about tropical disease, chronic illness or global health policy in class, but the impact can be much deeper when they meet people living with those realities.
The classroom and communal space also strengthen ILAC’s ability to host groups and create an environment where learning, reflection and service remain connected.
A Model of Long-Term Accompaniment
The medical missions at ILAC stand out because they are supported by a permanent local presence. Rather than functioning only as a destination for occasional visiting teams, the campus serves as an ongoing resource for the surrounding region.
Local Mission ILAC staff and medical volunteers work alongside visiting groups, helping coordinate patient care, organize outreach and maintain relationships with communities. This collaboration is essential. It helps ensure that visiting volunteers do not work in isolation and that their efforts are connected to local knowledge and needs.
The approach reflects a model of accompaniment rather than one-time charity. Communities are not treated as passive recipients of outside assistance. Local leaders, health cooperators and staff members play an active role in identifying needs, guiding teams and supporting long-term wellness.
That model also benefits visiting volunteers. Physicians and students learn from Dominican colleagues and community members, gaining insight into language, culture, family structures and local health challenges.
The work requires humility. No short medical mission can solve all the healthcare problems facing rural communities. But recurring visits, local partnerships, preventive education and attention to underserved areas can make a lasting difference.
For patients, access to medical care may mean relief from pain, diagnosis of a chronic condition, a needed dental procedure, a consultation before surgery or the reassurance that someone has listened carefully to their concerns.
For volunteers, the mission can become a defining professional and spiritual experience. They may return home with a more grounded understanding of medicine, service and the dignity of every patient.
A Place Where Service and Reflection Meet
ILAC’s continued work in Santiago de los Caballeros shows how a retreat campus can become a center for practical compassion.
Its Catholic and Ignatian identity shapes the atmosphere of the mission, but the healthcare work brings together people from diverse backgrounds. Volunteers participate in ecumenical reflections, share meals, work long hours in clinics and travel into remote communities with a common goal: to provide care where it is needed most.
The spiritual setting does not separate faith from service. Instead, it encourages volunteers to see medical care as a response to human dignity. Whether through a blood pressure screening, a pediatric visit, a dental procedure, an outpatient surgery or a difficult journey into the mountains, the mission seeks to meet people with both skill and respect.
For students such as Katherine Calvet, the experience can reveal a future calling. For veteran physicians such as Dr. Grant Phillips and Dr. Jane Cohen, it can renew a commitment that has lasted for years or even decades. For priests such as Father Raber, it offers a chance to accompany patients, students and healthcare workers through moments of concern, healing and hope.
In a region where many rural communities remain underserved, ILAC continues to provide a place where international volunteers and local leaders can work together. Its mission is sustained not only by medical expertise, but also by relationships, reflection and a long-term commitment to the people of the Dominican Republic.
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