Say “moto-concho” to anyone who has traveled to the Dominican Republic and they will come alive with any number of descriptions of what they have seen riding on them.  For those of you have not visited us in the Caribbean, a moto-concho is a motor cycle.  Moto-conchos are used all over the third world for transportation.  They are fast, they can easily get around traffic jams, jumping the curve if necessary, they can move quickly down one way streets the wrong way; they can even transport a family of five with an infant on the last person’s knee.  I have seen TV’s, washing machines, gas tanks, and even a 300 lb live hog transported on a moto-concho.   The moto-concho driver usually rents a bike for the day and charges a fee that covers the cost of his rental, his gas, and his own wages. I personally never ride on a moto-concho, unless there is no choice.  In Sosua, where we lived, if I had to ride on one, I called Franklin.  Franklin is a wonderful man who works long hours to make the money needed to support his family.  Franklin also understands that I don’t like riding the wrong way on a one way street.  He usually sits at the market exit waiting for business.  This last trip in July, 2011 I saw Franklin and he was very distraught.  His mother has breast cancer and the operation she needs will cost thousands of  US Dollars, a huge some for a man who probably makes $ 10-15 dollars per day.  I felt so helpless, what could I do?  I knew Franklin’s mother did not stand a chance.  The statistics are against her.  

To a women in the developing world-AKA –USA/Canada/Europe, the probability of being diagnosed with cancer is more than twice as high as women of  poorer countries.  Mortality however is on the decline, due to education and screening, genetic research and better treatment modalities.   In countries like the Dominican Republic and Haiti, while the probability of developing cancer may be lower, in 80% of the cases the cancer is almost always diagnosed in late stages resulting in a much higher mortality rate.  WHO reports that Cancer is on the rise in the poorer countries of the world.  They attribute this increase to the population living longer, increased migration to city areas, and the people of the third world adapting our bad habits.  Because cancer in the third world is detected almost always in late stages-early detection is without a doubt, is the answer.

But detection was not Franklin’s problem, treatment was.  I thought at the time, even if I could teach self breast exam-what would I do if I found a lump?  Enter Stage Right- Pathologist-Dr. Ali Tamsen and Dr. Edna Kapenhas from the Ellen Hermansen Breast Center of Southampton, NY.  Dr. Tamsen’s daughter, Shereen had previously participated in a disaster relief team to Haiti and loved it.  After her return,  Dr.  Tamsen began thinking about providing care in the Dominican Republic.  When our Dominican administrator presented the idea to the Minister of Health in Puerto Plata, he jumped at the idea.  The team will travel August 4th-11th, 2012 and will provide screening, biopsy and diagnosis, and surgical treatment. 

It didn’t take long for me to realize I needed a lot of help on this one!  That is when I met Dawn Brown RN.  Dawn attends our local church and is a nurse researcher at the Cancer Center at Martin Memorial Health Systems.  She has spent time providing education materials for me and introducing me to local agencies that fund breast education initiatives.  You see, the team will raise the funds for their surgical supplies, but I need to raise the funds for the mammograms and pre-op screening.  We have also scheduled two other teams to get ready for the Breast Team.    


July 10th-15th    The First Annual Pink Brazier Parade (WOMEN ONLY) This team will help prepare for the parade- making banners and meeting with women's organizations in the area to provide education. The Parade will occur Saturday, July 14th. I still need a dozen volunteers to help.  We are hoping that 500-1000 women will participate.  I have found a contact who will sell me cheap braziers for $2 dollars apiece and we will dye them pink.  Then we will help the women decorate them.  The parade will follow the theme-“It’s the Little Things,” a meringue style song which talks about the importance of the little things in life.  Our little thing focus is of course, self breast exam and yearly mammograms. 

July 23rd-28th   CLC/Medical& Radiological Screening
This team will provide clinical breast exams, mammograms, and pre-op screening to prepare women for care during the August 4th team.  Coastal Life Church is already gearing up preparing its medical personnel for the challenge.  WE STILL NEED -Radiologist, and or Mamo Tech and a MD for Preop Screening. Speak to the professionals you see each year, maybe someone will be interested. 

All I all, we have taken on a huge task but I think we are ready!  There are many women like Franklin’s mother who need our help and we have the professionals with the skills needed to do something about it!  Check out the new Breast Cancer Care page!

Kelli

"Be not simply good, be good for something." Thoreau

“Doctor My Eyes,” was written and first performed in 1972 by one of my favorite artists Jackson Browne.  The song has a very upbeat rhythm but the lyrics speak to his weariness with the world, a theme I can whole heartedly understand.  Working in the third world has its pinnacle moments, such as the moment someone sees for the first time in 23 years.  But on the whole it is a long and arduous process.  Years are spent understanding the “whys’,” of a culture, not to mention the time that is needed to cultivate the trust needed to really make a difference.  Anyone who knows me has heard me say this before.  I have seen a lot of suffering, so suffering doesn’t always affect me personally, but witnessing others who are willing to dedicate themselves to alleviate that suffering ALWAYS moves me.  S,oooo it should be of no surprise that I am of course moved by the dedication of the eye team, Casa De Luz translated House of light.  In May, this team will provide its 7th year of service to the people of the Dominican Republic.  Each year they raise funds, purchase all their own surgical materials, and pay for their own way to come and provide free eye surgeries for a very needy group of people.  

This team also provides “Muscle Surgery,” a fairly new specialty in the last 50 years.  I think very few of us know an adult with crossed eyes and that is due to the advancement of this type of surgery. Armed with a sight saving skill, Dr. Kelly Hutcheson wanted to make a difference.  I was once told by one of her optometrists, Sherry Jorgensen, that Dr. Kelly charged her with finding somewhere she could make a difference and so Sherry contacted Island Impact.  

It is a team approach. Right now Susy, our administrator in the Dominican Republic, is out recruiting patients from every city on the North Coast.  She travels for three weeks to various government hospitals to educate patients on the services that Casa De Luz will provide.  These patients are then seen in Island Impact clinics where their health is evaluated.  Conditions like Anemia, Diabetes, and Hypertension which would prevent surgery, are discovered and treated.  They are also evaluated for cardiac conditions which would also prevent them from receiving the surgery which will restore their sight.  Island Impact needs to raise $3000 dollars to pay for vision screening, pre-operative work ups, and follow up care.  Make a donation if you can! 

Together we, that is YOU and I,  are making a huge difference in the lives of people on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic.  I guess the solution to weariness is having someone who believes in what you are doing and helps carry the load, something Casa De Luz and Island Impact share together.  Maybe all Jackson needed was a partner to work with.  

Remember, It Takes Team Work, To Make The Dream Work.  
Kelli

"Let's not get tired of doing what is good, for at the right time we will reap a harvest-if we do not give up." Galatians 6:9

                                     PLEASE TURN ON THE MUSIC WHEN YOU START THE VIDEO.

There was an article on Child Sponsorship that stated such programs which provide basic education in a foreign country through sponsorship were too difficult to manage and weren’t cost effective.  The article was basically right. The fact of the matter is, it is difficult to manage a sponsorship program in a foreign country and they are not cost effective.   But, it’s also hard to ignore the fact that the child who has a sponsor will remain in school longer, will be better prepared to face life’s challenges, and will have a greater chance to improve his situation in life than the one who has no sponsor at all.  Add to education health care, and now that child will be healthier, and learn better than a child who receives no medical attention. All this makes it well worthwhile.

We have personally been involved with child sponsorship since early 1980’s.  Before we were even missionaries each of us sponsored a child.  Then, when we moved to Haiti to work as missionaries, we began the challenging, but satisfying work of managing the child sponsor programs for our respective mission organizations.  We both have seen firsthand and can attest to the fact that sponsorship changes a child’s life for the better.   Kelli sponsored a child named Antoinese for years.  Antoinese then grew up to be trained by Kelli to be the mission clinic administrator after she departed Haiti. She is now a pastor’s wife and a respected citizen of her community. 

Child sponsorship not only gives the sponsored child an educational boost, a hand up so to speak, but also helps to keep the whole school functioning by providing teachers, materials, supplies, equipment, food, and medicine as well.  So, all the children in a school that has a child sponsorship program will benefit regardless if they have a personal sponsor or not. 

The idea of child sponsorship has been around a long time and there are many organizations that offer this option to give.  We currently have 140 children sponsored at three different school locations; two in the Dominican Republic and one in Haiti.   The cost to sponsor a child is $25 per month with 60% or $15 going directly to the school program and 40% or $10 to support the medical program helping to sustain three clinics.  The fact is, one hundred percent of the sponsorship funds are used to benefit not just one sponsored child, but many more children in the school and hundreds of people receiving medical care at one of Island Impact’s three clinic facilities each month. 

As mentioned earlier, managing a child sponsor program is difficult.  But, volunteers such as  child sponsor coordinators, Jorge and Dottie Leiva work hard to share the load.   Plus, giving the next generation of children an opportunity to grow and develop brings great joy to hundreds of child sponsors who also believe it’s all worthwhile to sponsor a child.        

The fact is, you can make a difference in the life of a child starting today.  To learn more about child sponsorship and personally sponsor a child, go here.                   

1 Corinthians 13:12    For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

This past week I learned of two very tragic stories.  The first was from a friend from college, Deb Launius.  She is a Pediatric Oncology Nurse.  In my opinion, she works in one of the most difficult places a nurse can work-with sick children.  She shared a photo of a beautiful little girl, who had succumbed to Leukemia.  Of course it broke everyone’s heart, even though Deb was the only one who knew her.  There is a natural response that rises within us to tragedy, or sickness, or poverty.  We know it is wrong! We know it shouldn’t be and yet it is.  Inevitably, feeling helpless to stop it we question, “why?” 

The New Testament teaches that we see through a glass darkly- understanding the reason for loss is not always given to us in this life.  But it also teaches that we have been given a promise- one day we will know.  Until then my friend, it is our job to make the ever subtle difference in the lives of those around us.  It is our job to fight injustice.  It is our job to support the weak and disenfranchised.  It is our job to know them and their needs and to reach out to them and to love them.  Which leads me to my second story.  This past week the Ocular Prosthetics Team from Alberta, Canada-Jim Willis, Jon Koroscil, and Ian McRobbie, were in the Dominican Republic.  Jim shared with me how much he respects the Dominican Staff at Island Impact.  I will place his email and his story here.  Stand strong-keep the faith!  Someday we will know all, until then let’s keep busy caring for the needs of others. 

Hi Rob and Kelli

Well, we are back home arriving to temperatures in the -20C range.  Quite a contrast to weather in the Dominican.

I wanted to tell you how impressed we all were with both Susi and Modesta.  They both have such passion for what they do and I just love watching them interact with the patients.  They both show such dignity and compassion for each patient.On the trip last week one of the most beautiful illustrations of the love of Jesus being shown to another human being I have ever seen was between Susi and one of our patients.  The patient had had Devil Acid (a mixture of drain cleaner and PVC pipe glue) thrown in her face by another women following an argument. The burns she received were the most disfiguring I have seen in over 35 years of practice. The patient showed us a picture of herself before this horrendous accident and she was such a beautiful women.  Ian had fit her with an artificial eye and then she was waiting in the hallway for her ride when Susi came out to talk further to her.  When the woman was about to leave Susi reached out and gave her a hug and then gave her a tender kiss on the cheek.  I could just picture Jesus doing the same thing to this women giving her back herself worth and for a moment making her feel beautiful, accepted, precious and whole.  Susi saw past the burns and saw a beautiful life.  I took the picture of Susi with the patient just after this act of compassion. We so enjoy working with Modesta and Susi and they make us feel so at home in the clinic.  And we LOVE our Island Impact Shirts and wore them with pride.  The picture at the bottom is with one of the patients with the last picture a close up of his new artificial eye.  He was so happy he was on the verge of crying and wanted his picture taken with us.

We look forward with great anticipation to our next trip.  Thank you for allowing us the privilege, blessing and opportunity to serve the people of the Dominican Republic in your clinic.

Blessings from your friend in Christ,

Big Jim Willis 

Dickinson College made their way to the Dominican Republic this past month and touched the lives of the children of San Marcos.  These children will remember every student from the college that visited them for the rest of their lives.  Talk about being an Ambassador.  Trips like these do more to improve relationships around the world than the State Department could ever dream of.  Not to mention the change it brings in the students themselves.  Thanks For All You did in San Marcos.  Thanks to Mira Hewlett, and Peter Paquette for all your hard work!

_  Well we all know what season it is! It’s not fall, not winter, not spring, or summer it’s SUPERBOWL SEASON. That’s right, everywhere you turn- TV, Facebook, Twitter, fans are sounding off about their teams and players and the coveted RING!  Americans are looking to their favorite pastime to pull them out of a slump, and football can really get your blood pumpin’.  One phrase I keep hearing over and over again is “Starting Line Up.”  These guys aren’t just any football player, they are the best of the best, with arms of steel and legs of iron.  Well Island Impact has a starting Line Up of our own!  Let’s take a peek at what the year has to offer so far:
  JAN- We Kick-Off the season with a rookie team from Carlisle, Pa.  As I write, Rob is in the Dominican Republic with a team from Dickinson College. Dickinson shares a tremendous “First,” with the Dominican Republic.  Santo Domingo is home to the First University in the Americas and Dickinson is the First College chartered in the newly recognized United States. This team will give a makeover to the classrooms and playground areas at San Marcos and will also teach English to the students in the school.  Rob told me there isn’t a kid who isn’t smiling this week! Yea! Go Red Devils! (Dickinson’s Football Team)

 FEB- Marks the return of the Ocular Prosthetics Team from Alberta, Canada-Jim Willis, Jon Koroscil, and Ian McRobbie.  Personally, I didn’t even know Canadians played anything but Hockey, Aye! J They visit two to three times per year providing high quality Ocular Prosthetics for some of the poorest people in the eastern hemisphere.  Dr. Eric Brown will also visit.  He financially supports and runs the Women’s Health Center in La Cienega.  In light of an epidemic of teenage pregnancies in the area, the Women’s Health Center is gearing up to teach a new course called “Woman, You are Valuable,”  a curriculum which teaches personal dignity and value in a culture where women are seen only as objects.   

 APR- Welcomes two veteran teams, the fighting Irish, of  JS Burke Catholic High School from Goshen, New York and a regular to Island Impact- CATMO from Coram, NY.       JS Burke travels every other year.  They raise a large amount of funds; charge a lot of yards, and bring some of the brightest students from their school to the DR.  Of course, dear to my heart, is the fact that they also bring lifelong friends of mine from my Alma Mata, Russell Sage College.  They provide mobile clinics in outlying villages and this year they will also provide cardiac screenings for our Eye Team patients in May.  CATMO belongs in the Hall of Fame. The acronym stands for Church at the Movies.  CATMO was the first organization to support Island Impact in 2003.  Rev. Blackmore still sits on our board and both Rob and I consider him to be the league’s most valuable coach.   75% of what we have done, CATMO has been a part of. They will screen for diabetes, taking the game to the streets where the people are.   

  MAY-Casa De Luz- Go Redskins! This team hails from Washington, DC and like the  Skins, they are also one of the most valuable teams in the league. This is their 7th year providing surgical Eye Care, crossed eyes, cataract, and now retinal care for diabetics.  Their offensive line is a group of medical professional who have committed to movin’ that ball way down into enemy territory, thus paving the way for other surgical teams to come to the DR. 

  JULY- Two teams will start this month.  July 10th-15th will be an open team- Women’s ONLY Team.  These powder puff ladies will set up for the First Annual Pink Brazier Parade in the DR.  We’re taking on Breast Cancer and we’re gonna win.  Coastal Life Church from Stuart, Fl is in Tebow Mode.  They were a new team in the 2011 season, but don’t count them out just a yet.  A little experience and they may give everyone a run for their money.  They will bring both medical personnel who will screen for Breast CA and a family team who will have VBS in two villages.

 Aug-Welcomes a Giant of a team who intends to level the playing field on Breast Cancer in the 3rd World.  The International Breast Mission, from the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center of Southampton, NY, will screen, diagnose, and surgically treat women with Breast Cancer. Cancer killed 7.6 Million people last year.  This team’s defensive line will stop it dead in its tracks. 

 Still out there working on dates is an Orthopedic Mission to Haiti, Coastal Life Church’s trip to Haiti and three DR teams, one of which is from Vanderbilt’s PICU.   It’s going to be a GREAT Season, get your tickets and set your dates soon, or you’ll miss your chance to be a part of it.  

 Kelli

Be not simply good, be good for something.  Thoreau

Sixteen members of the Jorge & Dottie Leiva family of Long Island, NY took a vacation/mission trip to the Dominican Republic in November. Their goals were to take new photos of all the children in the two sponsor schools and build a new classroom in San Marcos.  Oh, and they also found time to have some fun while doing all this!  Here is a slideshow of their trip.    Thank you, Leiva family for all your hard work and love for the Dominican people. 

Wow, the New Year is fast approaching and so are the resolutions for the year.  As a matter of fact, they are already appearing on Facebook.  The other night James Pendleton, the co-founder of Coastal Life Church, the church we attend her in Florida,  posted one of his:  “I think my New Years’ resolution should be to do ALL the grocery shopping this year!” One of the wives accused his wife of hacking his Facebook page, other wives wanted to get there husbands to sign up to do the same thing. The men however had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads.  One guy mentioned buying all the junk food you could ever want, another wasn’t so sure taking on the responsibility was smart but appeared to fall in favor of the decision mentioning something about unlimited Oreos. Why the disparity I thought?  I decided I would reply with a job description for shopping as follows: “Job description includes but is not limited to cleaning out the refrigerator, freezer and cabinets, loading items into the cart, purchasing and returning items to the home; placing purchased items NEATLY into the proper places; also includes being subjected to claims such as “you never get anything I like,” or “there’s nothing to eat in this house. “ Requires heavy lifting, bending, ability to not vomit when handling foul smelling left-overs not properly packaged by household inhabitants, and a strong sense of self esteem for verbal attacks leveled by other shoppers and members of the household.”   The disparity of course was in the details, apparently unknown by the husbands.    Be careful what you resolve to do.  The details you are unaware of will get you every time.   Some of the details not usually spoken about in our communications are the details that Robert, my husband handles every day.  He is the go to man for everything-he handles all the finances-from picking up the mail, to updating and balancing all the accounts that Island Impact has-one main bank account, a field account, a Dominican back account, a paypal account, a credit card account, an on line donation account, taxes, and government forms…. OMG!!!  I’m getting crazy just thinking about it.  He also handles all promotional work: the web site (which he built himself) the newsletters, the brochures, the tweets and the toots on Facebook. He also communicates regularly with Ken Swaner our Team Czar and Dottie Leiva our Child Sponsor Coordinator answering all their questions and determining policy.  I’m not done yet, he is also the Field Director, meaning he runs things in DR and Haiti.  That is a total of three clinics and 10 employees-payroll, requests, job evaluations, organizational structure, maintenance and upkeep.  There are at least 100 more jobs no one ever sees him do, including pull teeth.  The man is a true unsung hero.  It is his birthday this week.  Send him a note on facebook or by email-robert@islandimpact.net.  Let him know, you know.  Thanks for all you have done and continue to do, and becareful  what you resolve to do in 2012, the details may get ya!  :)
Kelli
"Be not simply good, be good for something." Thoreau

_(Team Teaching by Kelli Nelson, adapted for the blog)

Rob and I have spent our whole adult lives in Foreign Service.  Even when we have lived in the states, as we do now, we have made our lives about service to the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.  People always seem to find that strange, which doesn’t surprise me, as I find it strange that more people don’t do it.  I must admit there is a rising consciousness I see now, that did not exist twenty years ago, but there are still more that don’t feel the need to assist their fellow man than do.  So, I find myself asking “why?”  On this last trip to Haiti, I had an epiphany, while reading a well known scripture.

         
                  2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a                                            sound mind.

I realized that many people don’t feel empowered to do something for others. When we first arrived at the orphanage we took the construction crew to view the room we would be transforming into a clinic.  The room was large and dark.  Bob Richards, being our FP&L man (Florida Power and Light) was immediately concerned about light.  No problem-someone flipped the switch and a bulb, the size of a Christmas light bulb came on.  Everyone laughed of course, knowing that the small bulb and limited current would never be sufficient to provide what we needed.  So Bob went to work planning how he would get electricity to the room.  Many people feel like the light bulb.  The need is vast and great and they think their light so little.   I heard it from one of our team mates Reba Marshall, a couple of times as she organized various activities to raise funds for the trip. She planned, organized, and worked diligently and then I heard her say, “I can’t really do too much when I get there, so I’m contributing here.” Reba was a blessing.  She worked all week, in another dark, very hot room, helping to test people for glasses.  Her contribution was monumental.  As was Lori and Shereen Tamsen’s help.  Shareen had visited Haiti with us previously and worked in the pharmacy on that trip.  She is a recent graduate of BU with an over whelming desire to go to med school.  When Shereen mentioned that her mother was concerned about her traveling to Haiti alone, I invited her mother as well, so Lori added her name to the list of team members.  Lori and Shereen worked all week in the pharmacy, stuffing pill packets with all kinds of medications, even though they weren’t pharmacists.  I heard Shereen using her French to give instructions as the patients picked up their prescriptions but Lori really touched my heart.  She was given the task on a number of occasions to track down the right medication from the supply bins.  Each time she came around with the name of a medication written on a piece of paper, to myself or the nurses, reorganizing the supplies and she searched until she found it.  That patient, unaware of the 20 -30 minutes she spent looking for what they needed.

I also realize that sometimes people lack love.  Sometimes they are too busy to love. Sometimes they have never experienced love and don’t know how to give it or sometimes the tragedies that they have experienced in life have gotten the better of them.  My husband always says, “Kell, you can let it make you bitter, or you can let it make you better.”  Holly Zeidman has obviously let it make her better.  Holly was in a car accident several years ago and sustained a severe back injury.  I could see in her face she understood the difficulty and pain the handicapped residents at the orphanage were experiencing.  Every time I turned around she and Becca Richards had their arms around another child.  Tom Richards, a 20 something, was charged with helping to build the clinic, but he also made time for the kids who playfully followed him around.  Those kids have never experienced that kind of attention before and so like moths to the flame, they encircled them at every turn.  My good friend Anna, you may remember her from the blog-Haiti, a Motorcycle and Al Pacino.  Well Al is not the only thing that Anna loves.  She loves her family and friends and the people of Haiti. She gives of her finances and her time in order to make their lives a little easier because love gives, it is an action verb.  Ken Swanner, or as we affectionately refer to him, “The Team Czar,” also loves Haiti.  He worked many hours raising funds, answering emails, and laboring to build that clinic.  He is also working on a grant proposal which will hopefully provide funds to build a new orphanage. 

Then there are those who think their skills aren’t really needed. On this trip we had a variety of skills. Dr. Joe Papotto, physician and musician and Larry Comeau, Iron worker and singer both contributed variety skills.  Dr. Joe healed, Larry, worked on the clinic construction and they both sang lovely together.  I cried as they sang an old hymn on the dirt floor of a very poor Haitian church.  When the crowd recognized it, their faces lit up and they sang in creole as the group sang in English. Kim Kapanadze, pharmacist and Mary Jane Stefanowski, RN came to my aid.  It is usually my job to organize the pharmacy and supplies.  But those two ladies handled it all soup to nuts, with very little of my assistance.  They were well organized and knowledgeable, sound minds, what a contribution.  Amy Sloan, optometrist actually stole the show however.  When the Haitian’s realized they could actually get tested and receive a pair of glasses, they went crazy.  Amy saw 50 patients a day, or should I say 50 Very Happy patients per day.  Lastly, Omar Taylor, our videographer recorded it, for all to see. He will compose a professional video for the ministry.  It will be the story of what simple folk can do when they are empowered, full of love, and skilled. God has not given us a spirit of fear, let Him use you to change the lives of others.

Thank you to all the volunteers and donors who made this mission trip to Haiti such a huge success.  Enjoy the slideshow and please share it with your family and friends.