A new year is a new opportunity to see better!!!

Every year in January, Saint Mary’s parish coordinates a group mostly of people from the Kenosha area, with some others, for a week in the parish of La Sagrada Familia, run by the Community of Saint Paul, in Sabana Yegua, Azua. This year 29 people came for a threefold mission trip: eye surgeries, eye exams and a building project. They performed 122 surgeries, saw more than 900 people during the four day clinic and built a house for a family that has some members with disabilities. 

The people of La Sagrada Familia are grateful for the effort of these 29 missionaries who every year take some of their valuable time to share with us their talent and love.

These mission trips started eleven years ago and we have seen from the beginning that it was above all about creating relationships and creating partnerships that have lasted for several years. This has been a blessing for both parishes La Sagrada Familia and Saint Mary’s in Kenosha - with some relationships that have been be growing for over a decade. 

Thank you very much to all those who participated in Mission 11, and in missions past!

Shoulder to Shoulder to Improve the Sight of Many

Each year during the month of January, a group of volunteers from Kenosha, Wisconsin, USA, come to the Dominican Republic to conduct an ophthalmologic clinic in the parish La Sagrada Familia in Sabana Yegua. The group is composed of surgeons, ophthalmologists, nurses, and others of good will. These people, already busy with their own lives, make a significant and inconvenient commitment to journey far from home to provide advanced medical services, not readily available or affordable, to the local people of the parish. 

When the medical specialists and their aides arrive, they are joined by an enthusiastic group of Dominican volunteers who generously and attentively support them with translations and other logistical activities during the hectic week of nearly non-stop work. Standing shoulder to shoulder, the two groups meld into a dedicated and efficient team. In the clinic, the sight of many people, with a variety of different ailments and conditions, is examined, evaluated and treated. Many surgeries, already planned during the months before the clinic, are performed.