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Report of VOSH-Connecticut Mission VOSH/Connecticut Protocol 2010-2011 VOSH/International Contact
Release |
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VOSH-Connecticut held its fourth annual
eye care clinic in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua on January 8-15, 2005. This
was the seventh year of service at this site to the San Juan de Sur area, the
fourth under the auspices of VOSH-Connecticut, along with three previous
missions under the auspices of VOSH-NECO. The team
consisted of seven Optometrists led by Dr
Matthew Blondin and included: Dr. Leora Berns We were
joined by fourteen second, third and fourth year optometry students: Netherlands- UC
Berkeley USML SUNY Additional
mission members joining us: Secondo Jefa: Joyce Krnitsky R.N.:
Marsha Hunter Chief
Translator: Cecilia Suarez Opticians
& Techs/Dispensing: Helpers:
This was
our seventh mission to San Juan del Sur, and definitely the most challenging.
We lost our shipper of the last few years & attempted to send 35 boxes of
eyeglasses and supplies in October with a new shipper down to Leon for
pick-up & storage in San Juan del Sur. Great problems arose and we ended
up having to re-order 3,500 pairs of sunglasses and 1,600 of the original
3,000 pairs of eyeglasses we had ordered from the Virginia Lions Club, along
with re-purchasing a sufficient amount of readers. Through the generosity of
American Airlines and Director Tom Lewis at Bradley International Airport, we
were allowed 5 boxes per volunteer, and since we had 10 volunteers departing
from Bradley, we were able to bring everything we needed with us without
additional cost. We are very grateful for the continued consideration and
generosity of Tom Lewis & American Airlines and we look forward to
continuing to work with and count on their generosity for future missions.
Problems continued upon arrival in Managua, when we were held up in customs
for an hour until Cecilia Suarez showed her United Nations credentials and we
were finally allowed to pass through. Both on the way down from Managua and
back, our bus was pulled off the road and detained for a short time until
allowed to continue. The
clinic was held at the Centro Escolar Enmanuel Mongalo y Rubio. It was set up on Sunday, January 9, 2005
with five examination rooms, a pre-testing room, dispensary and lunchroom.
The clinic officially opened on Monday, January 10, 2005 at 8:00 a.m. Breakfast
was provided each day by VOSH-Connecticut beginning at 7:00 a.m. and a snack
provided each day at 10:00 a.m. We continue to be very thankful for the
dedicated & excellent services of both Marina & Guadelupe
in providing wonderful & delicious local foods for our clinic members
& volunteers. Patients were seen from 8 a.m.-1 p.m., with a break for
lunch provided by Dra. Rosa Elena Bello from
1:00-2:00 p.m., along with a daily briefing meeting. Clinic then resumed from
2:00-5:00 p.m. Over the
four-day clinic period, we saw 2,607 patients broken down as follows:
Many
residents of San Juan del Sur and the surrounding areas were served,
stretching as far as the Masaya area to the Costa Rican border, with many
arriving by bus, taxi, horseback and push carts. This year VOSH-CT began a
program of community outreach which will continue to be developed &
expanded for subsequent missions. This community outreach program would not
be possible without the tremendous energy & efforts of Secondo Jefa Joyce Krinitsky, as well
Pastor James Smith & the newly elected officials of San Juan del Sur,
including Mayor Eduardo Hollman & Deputy Mayor
Denis Carmona. As part of our community outreach program, local truck
announcements were purchased for both the local & outlying areas, as well
as contracting for a school bus to pick up patients in the surrounding areas
outside of San Juan del Sur. We hope to continue these outreach efforts and
expand our efforts in order to serve as much of the needy population as we
can during our clinic days. We are most grateful in particular for the
support of the newly elected officials in San Juan del Sur & very much
look forward to continuing to work together for future missions in service to
the residents of San Juan del Sur. On
Thursday evening, January 16, 2003, VOSH-Connecticut hosted a banquet for
approximately 100 VOSH-Connecticut and local Nicaraguan volunteers at the
beautiful Pelican Eyes Hotel under the watchful eye & direction of Chris
Berry, who has been instrumental in the success of our VOSH missions over the
past seven years. No VOSH mission can be successful without the help &
assistance of local contacts, and we continue to be very grateful to Chris
Berry & his excellent & dedicated staff for all of their time, efforts
& organization on behalf of VOSH-CT. At the banquet, we were honored with
several local dance presentations, a highlight of our program. Certificates
of Appreciation were presented to all participants. Throughout
the mission, all communications were held in both English and Spanish, which
worked well. Our great communication would not have been possible without the
wonderful volunteer efforts of our Chief Translator, Cecilia Suarez, who was
invaluable in helping us throughout the week whenever and wherever
translations were necessary. Pathologies encountered included cataracts, pterygia, glaucoma, corneal foreign bodies, coloboma, toxoplasmosis, conjunctivitis, and retinal
disease. Once again, volunteers from Simmons College set-up a physical
therapy room which provided additional services to those in need & also
assisted with translating, for which we are very grateful. We would
like to extend a special thank-you to Dra. Rosa
Elena Bello & her designated security staff. For the first time, we
encountered no security problems by having four paid security guards at the
gate & a paid security guard outside each of the five examination rooms.
Everything was excellent, & we are very grateful to Dra.
Rosa Elena & the security personnel she selected to assist us with this
mission. We would also like to thank Secondo Jefa
Joyce Krinitsky for her assistance in obtaining our
four paid translators. This also worked very well & we again thank Joyce
& the translators for their excellent efforts, as well as all the volunteer
translators who assisted us throughout the week. It would be impossible to
run this clinic without the dedication & time of all of those who came
& volunteered their time to help us at the clinic as translators & we
are very appreciative of their efforts. We would also like to extend a
special acknowledgement & thanks to our school principal Ana Luisa Mora,
who for seven years has been the "Keeper of the Keys", and has
always been there tirelessly with great dedication and commitment on our
behalf during the clinic. We would also like to again thank Alcon
Laboratories, Inc. for their generous donations to help those in need. As we
have noted over the past several years, San Juan del Sur is undergoing some
rapid developmental changes affecting the local population in varying
degrees. Despite some of these changes, there continues to be a great need
for our services, particularly in the areas surrounding San Juan del Sur.
Although at times it was a difficult mission, with our largest number of
volunteers to date, we were fortunate to have an outstanding group of mission
members, a number of whom were returning with us multiple times and a very
mature and hard-working group of students, who all made any difficulties we
encountered easy to overcome. Everyone
worked together with their Nicaraguan counterparts to provide eye care
services to those in need unselfishly and with a dedication and spirit that
exemplifies in every aspect the true meaning of a VOSH-Connecticut volunteer.
We at VOSH-Connecticut continue to be most grateful to Mayor Eduardo Hollman, Deputy Mayor Denis Carmona, all the local
elected officials, Dra. Rosa Elena Bello and all of
the volunteers and residents of the San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua area for
working along with us, and allowing us the continued opportunity to be of
service to such a kind, generous and deserving people. |
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Matthew Blondin,
O.D., F.A.A.O. |
Audrey B. Blondin,
"La Jefa" |
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