Students’ Eye Health a Priority in Grande Boulage
COCONUT CREEK, Fla. (June 3, 2015) A 12-year-old girl will undergo cataract surgery on June 24 at Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, thanks in part to a Food For The Poor donor who is making students’ eye health at Grande Boulage School a priority.
“She received trauma on her right eye by a thorn three years ago. She needs a cataract operation on her right eye,” wrote Brother James Kim. “Her left eye is normal, but her right eye can just sense the light. She couldn’t even count my fingers. This surgery is more difficult than usual cataract surgeries because trauma caused this, and there are corneal opacity and iris deformation. But I think she will be able to have a better vision after surgery.”
The eye examinations are led by ophthalmologist Brother James Kim from the Catholic order of Kkottongnae in Haiti. He is supported by his Kkottongnae brothers and sisters, volunteers, and the school’s staff.
The school in Grand Boulage, Haiti, has almost 700 students, and each month about 100 students will receive an eye examination. The next visit is scheduled for June 19. After three visits, more than a dozen students have received glasses thanks to this initiative.
“The donor is very interested in the eye health of the students at the school he has helped to fund,” said Delane Bailey-Herd, a Haiti Project Manager for Food For The Poor. “He realizes at 89 that eye health is very important. A great concern for him is that the students are able to see.”
Donor Anthony ‘Tony’ Pestritto, a resident of Sea Isle, New Jersey, and Boca Raton, Florida, will return to the school in Grand Boulage, Haiti, with Food For The Poor representatives this week to recognize the hard work of the students.
Food For The Poor, named by The Chronicle of Philanthropy as the largest international relief and development organization in the nation, does much more than feed millions of the hungry poor in 17 countries of the Caribbean and Latin America. This interdenominational Christian ministry provides emergency relief assistance, clean water, medicines, educational materials, homes, support for orphans and the aged, skills training and micro-enterprise development assistance, with more than 95 percent of all donations going directly to programs that help the poor. For more information, please visit www.FoodForThePoor.org.
Jennifer Leigh Oates
Food For The Poor
Public Relations
954-427-2222 x 6054
[email protected]