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By helping a neighbor in need, the Dominican Republic also helps itself.

Just two days after Haiti’s earthquake, Leonel Fernandez, the president of the neighboring Dominican Republic, ordered a helicopter to fly him over the border for an unannounced visit. He was worried about his Haitian counterpart and friend, Rene Preval, who was still incommunicado.

What made this neighborly gesture remarkable was that the two countries that share the island of Hispaniola have long been divided by mutual suspicion. During a previous term in the 1990s, Fernandez became the first Dominican president to visit Haiti in 60 years.

Fernandez says he found Preval alone in a small, dark back office at a police station near the airport. They talked about how the Dominican Republic could help. It has, a lot. Crews of Dominicans, including engineers, telecoms technicians and the Red Cross, were among the first to join the relief effort.

Fernandez dispatched 15 mobile kitchens to provide hot meals to survivors. He is now sending 100 old buses, refitted with desks and chairs, to serve as temporary classrooms. Dominican health teams are helping to treat earthquake survivors at a makeshift hospital in Jimani on the border. Victor Atallah, a Dominican cardiologist, is building a rehabilitation clinic in Jimani where he plans to fit amputees with prosthetic limbs.

In June, Fernandez will host a donor conference in Santo Domingo. There is understandable self-interest in his admirable solidarity.