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Report of VOSH-Connecticut Mission VOSH/Connecticut Protocol 2010-2011 VOSH/International Contact Release |
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The additional mission members were as follows: Joyce Krinitsky-Jefa Segunda-Assistant
Director Dispensary Sally Lee-Editor in Chief-Ladies Home Journal Magazine – Grace Lee-Niosi – Dispensary Assistant Annie Hill – Dispensary Assistant Patrick Cudahy – Dispensary Assistant Berkeley Students Monica Liou (2) – Student Leader Glen Ong (2) Henry Duong (2)
Daniel Cheng (2) Charmine Trajano (2) Melissa Lester (3) – Assistant Leader Andrew Magnum (3) Sonia Menchavez (3) Megan Lee (3) – Assistant Leader Leslie Small (1) Gloria Lin (1) Jared Hayashi (2) Jill Yuzuriha (2) Olga Mukha (2) Jenn Truong (1) Translators Cecilia Hatton-Chief Translator/Community Liaison Leader Deanna Margius Laura Margherio Brittany Hamlin Helpers/Assistants/Pre-testers Kevin Creed – Assistant-Director Joseph Mingrone Tyler Hatton Joseph Lynch Olivia Kumro Joyce Krinitsky continues to do her
outstanding job as second in command, and the mission would not be the
success that it was without all of her continued help, assistance &
support. The coordination of various bus transports throughout the local and
southern Nicaraguan area continues to prove to be extremely successful due to
Joyce’s efforts, and we are extremely grateful to her in this regard. In
addition to a local bus for all 4 days in and around the San Juan del Sur
area, we provided bus transportation to patients from Tola,
Cardenas, Rivas, San Jorge and Buenos Aires, as well as many of the towns
surrounding the San Juan del Sur area and beyond. Despite having no certified Optician, the
Dispensary was run most efficiently and kept in excellent shape by our
Dispensary Chief Sally Lee and her assistant 9th grade daughter Grace Lee- Niosi, along with Annie Hill, Patrick Cudahy, Joe Lynch,
Joe Mingrone & Tyler Hatton. Brittany Hamlin
and Olivia Kumro, both pre-med students from
Cornell University, provided outstanding translating and pretesting services
throughout the mission, as did Kevin Creed(pre-testing)
and Deanna As in years past, approximately
50 local residents assisted with the clinic duties, led for the twelfth time
by local doctor Dra. Rosa Elena Bello. Many of
these local volunteers have been with us for all 14 years. A number of the
volunteers now speak some English, and that has been helpful to us and to
them as well! Dra. Rosa Elena Bello continues to do
a terrific job in getting and coordinating the patients for the clinic, and
we continue to be very grateful for all of the help and assistance she has
provided to us over the many years of service in and around San Juan del Sur.
Dra. Rosa Elena also took several of the high
school and college student volunteers to the local clinic and women’s shelter
for a view of health care and social services in Nicaragua, which the
students appreciated it very much. As in years past, we are very appreciative of the help and assistance
of Drs. David & Margaret Gullette for help in
providing translating services, along with the help of Simmons College
students as well. Kelvin Marshall provided great pre-mission coverage in his
Del Sur News & we continue to be very grateful to him in continuing to
spread the word for our clinic. My assistant Nicole Rolli continues to give
many hours of her time & terrific graphic design skills in support of the
mission and Angelo LaMonica continues to be very
generous in support of our mission, both financially and with donations of
candy for the patients. We also enjoyed many delicious and gracious evenings
with owner/host Mary Jane at her beautiful outdoor El Colibri’s
Restaurant where the food, drink and ambiance are just the best there is!! In addition to the three
thousand pairs of glasses were purchased by VOSH-Connecticut from the
Virginia Lions Club, 3,000 pairs of sunglasses & 300 pairs of readers
were purchased by VOSH-CT. A number of the supplies were transported by Jane Mirandette for which we are extremely grateful, but
continuing problems & issues with customs forced us to transport a number
The clinic was held for the fourteenth year at the Centro Escolar Enmanuel Mongalo y Rubio. It
was set up Sunday, January 8, 2012 with 6 examination rooms, a pre-testing
room for height and weight, dispensary & lunchroom. The clinic officially
opened on Monday, January 9, 2012 at 8:00 a.m. Breakfast was provided each
day by VOSH-Connecticut beginning at 7:00 a.m. Patients were seen from 8
a.m.-1 p.m., with a break for lunch provided by VOSH-Connecticut from 1:00-2:00
p.m. Clinic then resumed from 2:00-5:00 p.m. As in the past, VOSH-Connecticut
provided for all expenses for both mission members and local volunteers
relating to the clinic including breakfast, snack, lunch, at a cost to
VOSH-CT of $1,200 for the 4 day mission. Certificates of appreciation and
participation were given to all participating mission members, both local and
VOSH-CT, at the end of the clinic. Over the four-day clinic period, we saw 2,772 patients broken down as
follows: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Total 1/09/12 1/10/12 1/11/12 1/12/12
555 700 759 758 2,772
Over the past 10 years, we have seen at total of 26,923 patients broken
down as follows: (2003-3,158) (2004-2,530) (2005-2,607) (2006-2,283) (2007-2,359)
(2008-2,428) (2009-2,674) (2010-2,853) (2011-3,259) (2012-2772). We now see many of the same
patients year after year, as our yearly clinic remains the only source of eye
health care for a large part of the southern Nicaraguan population, and we
are all very appreciative of the opportunity to provide continuing care to
those in need.
Conditions throughout the southern Nicaraguan area and in the San Juan
del Sur area in particular are glum at best. There are no jobs and little if
any hope for economic improvement. Despite the constitutional calls for democratic elections and term
limits, Daniel Ortega once again was sworn in as President while we were
there and it’s very interesting to see how the entire satellite television
spectrum-every channel-were shut down during the inauguration only carrying
that one event for an entire day. Numerous drugs were donated by Alcon Laboratories, Inc.and
Allergan Pharmaceutical., although not as many as in the past and by the end
our supplies were quite limited. For next year, we will try to make earlier
and additional requests to insure that we have sufficient quantities for
those patients in need. Leftover drugs were donated at the conclusion of the
clinic to Dra. Rosa Elena Bello. The weather was sunny and calm and not overly hot throughout the
mission. Overall, this year’s mission went extremely well, with a minimum
amount of problems and concerns, due mostly to the fact that it is such a
gifted and experienced group of volunteers, who now all run the mission
together as part of a very well-oiled machine, along with our returning and
new Berkeley Optometry students who are outstanding in every way possible. It
is a pleasure for all of us to work with such terrific students and these
students from Berkeley are the best these is when it
comes to participating in the mission. They give and give, and work so well
with others. They are eager to learn and appreciative of the help they
receive from the other mission doctors. They truly are a part of the
Optometric Team in every way and I would especially like to acknowledge the
student leader Monica Liou for the excellent job
she did in organizing the students for the mission, as well as Megan Lee
& Melissa Lester who both returned for their 3rd missions with us, along
with Daniel Cheng We have continued our relationship with the Norwalk, CT Sister Cities
program under the direction of Tish Gibbs who once
again provided a bus this year from Nagarote under
the direction of Ramon Sepulveda Velez, which all worked very well. In
addition, once again we saw approximately 70 children from the Barrio Planta Project under the direction of Project Director
Emily Calder. We also welcomed Cmdo. Justo Zamora,
Police Chief of San Juan del Sur, along with numerous members of his local
police department. Common pathologies continue to
be encountered including cataracts, pterygia,
glaucoma, corneal foreign bodies, toxoplasmosis,tape worms, dry eye syndrome, conjunctivitis,
retinal disease, hypertension and some cancers. Our paid security staff returned
once again, and provided excellent & safe services for all not only at
the gate but at each exam room as well. Follow-up treatment facilities
continue to be lacking, and while lists of names were kept of needed patient
cataract surgeries, patients often remain untreated with little or no further
treatment options available. Patients with special needs were provided
additional eyeglass services through the generosity of Drs. Hardison & Lynch, with the assistance of Jane Mirandette and her assistant Heidy.
Escalating mission costs continue to present a challenge. Total mission
expenditures are now over $10,000 per mission, funded solely through
volunteer donations solicited primarily by myself through the CAO, as well as
through our yearly mission fees and the generosity of our close friends and
associates. We continue to be appreciative of the generosity of the members
of the CAO and others, as well as our mission members who give so generously
not only of their time but financially as well. Nicaragua continues to struggle in these on-going difficult economic
times with no good end in sight. As the world-wide economy has continued to
deteriorate and stagnate, the poor get poorer and the divide between the rich
and poor grows ever wider, especially in a place of huge economic and
cultural disparity like Nicaragua. We all try and do the best that we can
with the limited resources available to us, and once again, as our mission
came to a close, mission members came away with a great deal of satisfaction knowing
that a great many in need were helped by their generous and unselfish
efforts. VOSH-CT continues to be grateful to all of those, both here and in
Nicaragua, who work together as one to provide eye care to so many who
otherwise would have none. Respectfully submitted, ____________________________ _____________________________ Matthew Blondin, O.D., F.A.A.O. Audrey B. Blondin,
Esq., “La Jefa” Clinic Director
Clinic Director January 31, 2012 |
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