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Dominican Mission Provides The Miracle Of Sight Local doctors share experience 02.11.08

The Pujols Family Foundation just returned from another week-long mission trip to the Dominican Republic, on February 10, 2008. The team consisted of Albert Pujols, Deidre Pujols and Todd Perry from the Pujols Family Foundation. Dr. Jan Mueller and Dr. Luis Zayas staffed our pediatrics team. The nine team members from the Clarkson Eyecare Foundation consisted of: Dr. Michael Rohde, Dr. Kathy Doan, Dr. Cinnamon Lankford, Bill Jehling, Tesha Hawk, Joshlyn Sherman, Kathy Pangilinan, Sarah Ritter and Angelica Bickel. Martha Olivarez, Martha Korman and Gina Kelly rounded out the balance for the support team and translators.

The mission took the team to five villages in five days.

Dr. Kathy Doan and optician Joshlyn Sherman, both from the Clarkson Eyecare team, shared essays dealing with their personal experiences on this trip. We feel that both of these articles reflect beautifully the thoughts and experiences of the entire team.

Special thanks to each person who invested time, goods, services, funds and/or prayers to the success of this mission trip. We truly could not do it without your support!

SHOWING COMPASSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
By Dr. Kathy Doan, Clarkson Eyecare Foundation

Every day, I aspire to the principle of counting my blessings. However, after my trip to the Dominican Republic, I did more than that; I not only counted them, but boldly spoke of the abundance of my blessings to those around me. Spending one week with a phenomenal team made up of remarkable Christians has been an overwhelmingly inspirational journey for me.

We know that of all virtuous minds, compassion is supreme. Therefore, every child should be the object of our compassion. And it is under this common belief that I believe we were able to attract such a dynamic high-spirited team. When the Pujols Family Foundation and the Clarkson Eyecare Foundation joined together for the first time to provide vision services to the children of the Dominican Republic, I knew without a doubt that we would make a huge impact. Because when you have compassion, your complacency shatters and there's nothing but tremendous energy to work for the sake of others. I have been on two other medical missions previous to this, and with each one, I gain a greater appreciation for all those willing to sacrifice their time for others. In one week, our humble team was able to utilize our talents and resources to care for over 1800 children and adults. Our team members have been a constant flowing river of mercy and kindness despite averaging five to six hours of sleep per night!

The first day was spent at an orphanage. The children greeted us with bright lovely smiles and at the end of the day, thanked us for our services in the form of songs and skits. The children were extremely warm, loving and full of hope! By the end of the day, all of us had a child we wanted to take back to the U.S. The rest of the week had us setting up clinics in poor remote villages throughout different cities. The environment was less than ideal, but with great creativity and a strong desire to achieve the greatest in the least amount of time, we were able to successfully set up clinics and cared for the less fortunate. Much of the energy was spent treating children with various ocular diseases and providing glasses to those who needed them most, in addition to swatting mosquitoes and laughing at each other's poor Spanish. Believe it or not, there was an entire day dedicated to practically treating every child with some form of bacterial, viral or fungal infections. Because of the lack of medical care and poor living standards, many children have lost their vision due to simple infections such as these. Such unnecessary sadness!

On a brighter note, there were many memorable life-changing moments on this trip; however, since I cannot list them all, I will share two of my favorites just to give you a small glimpse of what my trip was like. The first involved me examining an elderly lady's eyes and then later holding ocular lenses in front of her eyes to show her what her glasses would do for her. If only you were there to see how her eyes lit up after she realized she could read again! She called me a miracle worker and asked who I was. I explained to her that I was not a miracle worker, but an eye doctor and a Christian - sent to serve people like her. She said she liked that idea and she too wanted to be a Christian and in that instant, with the help of Martha Korman, my wonderful translator and mentor for the week, the lady committed her heart and life to Christ.

My second story is an emotional tear-jerker for me. This involved a deaf 8 year old boy who was written down as "uncooperative". The teacher herself even instructed me to not waste my time on him and that I should move on to the next student. I saw this lost look on his face and asked to spend five minutes with him. In that brief moment I was able to discern that it wasn't that he was uncooperative. Instead, he was very nearsighted! After putting a pair of glasses on that child, it was uplifting to see him communicate to me that he could see much better. This child now is no longer deaf and "blind". In five minutes, I was able to enhance and improve one of his senses. When he thanked me in sign language, it spoke volumes!

In summary, after spending a week with such an AMAZING team as ours, I am reminded once again of the power of human kindness. Through God's grace, we were given the tools and talents to not only improve the vision of those in the DR, but to also show great compassion. The Pujols Family Foundation and the Clarkson Eyecare Foundation has been blessed with an enormous capacity to make an overwhelming difference in the lives of children. I am thankful that I could be part of such an astounding team.

Never the Same
By Joshlyn Sherman, Clarkson Eyecare Foundation

I have found the secret to happiness. I found it on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with the Clarkson Eyecare Foundation and the Pujols Family Foundation. When we boarded the plane for Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, I tried to mentally prepare myself. I could imagine the precious children we were about to meet. I could imagine the gorgeous palm trees and I could even imagine the sound of the waves rushing to the shore. I never for one second pictured how hard I would cry, how I would fall in love with these beautiful souls, or how I would never be the same.

With a team of three doctors, opticians, translators, helpers, a pediatrician and Albert and Dee Dee Pujols, we vowed to change the world one set of eyes at a time. We had planned on seeing anywhere from 500 to 800 children and provide them with free eye exams, eye glasses, and treatment of infections. We packed 1200 pairs of donated glasses, the proper optical equipment, our mission trip shirts, and tons of bug spray. We were ready.

On the very first day, I fell in love. I never knew it could happen at first sight, but what a way to better use our gift of vision? A tiny, little seven-year-old girl reached for my hand and never let me go. She was so happy to be with me that she actually fought off the other kids to be the only one to play with me. She taught me how to dance with Merengue flair and she hugged me with her whole heart. When we sat down to watch the other children perform their rehearsed play for Albert, Dee Dee and the rest of us, she plopped down in my lap, pulled my arms around her and closed her eyes with a smile. She didn't know, but I was looking down on her from above trying to hold back the tears from brimming over. She was beautiful and she didn't even know how much of an angel she really is.

Work on this first day was very rewarding, seeing 115 children at the Orfanato Niños de Cristo. We felt we were getting down the details of a smooth operation. The doctors were situated side-by-side in a bright and breezy room. One after another we held many children's hands and gave them something to smile about. Those who could not see before now looked around with awe at a world they didn't even know existed. We hugged them and rocked them to sleep feeling blessed to have met each of these angels. The beautiful women who look after these children prepared lunch and smiled graciously as we enjoyed their feast. Time flew by and before we knew, it we were heading to our faithful bus with children tugging at our legs. It was hard to say goodbye knowing we may never see them again. I turned to take one last glance at this sacred place only to see a feisty little girl running as fast as her heart would allow. My favorite little girl reached for me and I picked her up and spun her around. I will never forget her.

Days Two and Three were spent primarily in Haitian-influenced villages outside of La Romana. We were able to get our setup down to less than a half hour and begin seeing children almost immediately. We bustled through with what seemed like rehearsed teamwork with the amazing people from Compassion International. This organization provided much needed translating support and assistance in organization. We soon learned that the exam sheet needed for the free eye exam became the golden ticket. People formed lines that seemed miles long and one after another, we checked them in the pre-screening. This section allowed the children and adults to read through an eye exam chart, to be scanned by an auto-refractor and be checked for signs of infection. Once they were finished in this room, they were assisted to the one of the three doctors if needed. The doctors would then proceed to prescribe glasses, provide drops for infection, itchiness, and dryness. There were a few cases that could not be helped. Certain individuals had their infections far too long and were past the point of aid or they had formed cataracts or macular degeneration, for which we could do nothing. At this point, what we could do was definitely pray with them!

Our pediatrician, Dr. Jan Mueller, was able to save a life on Day Three. It was within this village that we encountered a young girl who had cut her foot. The children in this village run free and many do not have shoes among many other "luxuries" such as running water, food or adequate shelter. This young girl had actually cut an artery in her foot and without the aid of Dr. Mueller, she most likely would have died from infection. God definitely had us in the right place at the right time.

On Day Four we met the amazing Andy Patterson from Vision Trust. This man had the most amazing spirit! He led us through the most organized day up to this point. We joined him in a village in Santo Domingo. We jumped right in and were able to see over 400 kids on this day, which had become our average. As we pressed on trying to see everyone we could before the sun went down, we came to a screeching halt when the deaf-mute children were brought in. We had four interpreters at this point that went from an English-speaking doctor to a Spanish-speaking interpreter to the deaf-mute interpreter to the child. It was quite a feat, but we made it work. These poor children couldn't hear, they couldn't talk and many of them had horrible prescriptions. We had never been so proud to put a pair of glasses on a child as we were at that moment. To understand that they will never know the quality of life they deserve will completely break your heart.

After another successful day, we loaded the bus to realize we had seen all of the children we planned to see in all five days. A collective decision among the Clarkson Eyecare Foundation team determined that we were here to see as many children as we could. We made it clear that we would like to find another school or village that would allow us to provide glasses on Day Five. We were lucky enough to find a school in La Romana with children in need and we ushered our team to this school with the same energy as Day One and saw 437 children on this day bringing us to a grand total of 1,810 children and adults in five days! This was more than three times the amount of children we had anticipated seeing. Of these people given eye exams we dispensed 211 pairs of glasses. We had done what we came to do.

Each morning, Mr. and Mrs. Pujols greeted us with a motivational energy. They stood by us throughout the day helping to translate, provide breakfast and lunch and to pray over us. Every night, they prepared dinner for us or took us out to dinner. During this time, we would reflect on the day and analyze what we could do better during the next. The Pujols' generous evenings were an unexpected reward to a long day of hard work. We were consistently very much appreciated and made to feel very comfortable. I never could have imagined just how down to earth and humble the Pujols' truly are. Their faith in the Lord and their compassion for others has inspired me more than they will ever know. They are a shining example of the reason God has placed people here on earth and they have given me a better education than I could ever obtain in any classroom. I sincerely thank the Pujols Family Foundation, Compassion International and Vision Trust on behalf of the entire Clarkson Eyecare Foundation team. It was our honor and our privilege to love and serve the people of the Dominican Republic.

When we boarded the plane on Saturday afternoon, I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. It was over and done and I was deeply saddened. I would have given everything I own to hop off that plane and go back to get my little girl from Day One. I was filled with emotions that I didn't even know I had. To know the purity of the people of the Dominican Republic is to know God. The secret was finally clear to me: The true secret to life is to give your whole heart to others and expect nothing in return. If you reach out to them and give everything you have, you will find the inner peace and happiness I have discovered. I am proud to say that I will never be the same.

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