Elder and Sister Gerrittsen, serving in Cape Verde, shared this experience:
A low cost but very helpful project this month by LDS Charities was to provide whiteboards for 4 small rural schools on the island of Santo Antão, Cape Verde. The schools do not have electricity, so teachers cannot use modern technology when teaching and must rely heavily on the use of blackboards. Their blackboards were very old, cracked and worn, and were almost impossible to write on or read. LDS Charities purchased new whiteboards, markers, and erasers.
We
purchased the whiteboards on the island where we live, then transported them by
boat to Santo Antão, which involved some miracles getting them there. The school district used a truck to help
transport them 1.5-2 hours on dirt roads to the schools.
At some of the schools, mothers met us at the end of the road and then helped carry the whiteboards the last 20 minutes to the school, up and down hills, across dry river beds, and on dusty trails. The students, teachers, and parents were thrilled with the new whiteboards and markers. They all vowed to help keep them clean.
Elder and Sister Gerritsen riding in the back
of a truck in Mindelo. We didn’t have a car on our mission. We loved it!
When we asked Elder Gerrittsen to give us the make and model of the car they drove, he wrote back and said, "Rockport 9." Elder and Sister Gerrittsen will finish their mission in a few weeks. The Rockport 9's have carried them forward to accomplish miracles in the lives of many and miraculous blessings in their own life.
Ministering on the Island of Fogo
Elder Biven and Sister Biven live on the island of Fogo in Cape Verde. Elder Biven shared the following account:
Living
in a small town on the island of Fogo does have its advantages. Opportunities for service never seem too far
away. The Relief Societies of our local
wards always seem to be going about doing good.
The
Relief Society of São Filipe 1 regularly visits the local hospital and the
local old folks home to spend time with the patients and residents. The Relief Society of the São Filipe 2
regularly visits the Fogo Regional Prison and hosts a study group with several
of the inmates.
Sister
Biven always enjoys these outings.
Sister Biven with her Relief Society sisters.
Moldova - Saving Vision
LDS
Charities donated a new Zeiss surgical microscope to a hospital which services all the villages
in the surrounding area. The hospital was built long ago and has
not been maintained due to lack of funding. This is the training facility for
ophthalmology for the entire country.
Medical students and residents train at the hospital.
The
scope was installed on a Friday and immediately put to use the next
Monday. An 87-year-old woman who had
been waiting 3 years for eye surgery was the first patient. The new scope will make possible an
additional 6-10 operations per day, which will reduce the waiting time for
patients by approximately 50%, or 1.5 years. The current number of people
waiting for eye operations is approximately 3,000. Most of these people are poor and don’t have
the means to go to a private facility to have the surgery performed.
Miracles in Cape Verde
Elder Gerrittsen shared the following report:
Seeing the Major Vision Initiative carried out here in Cape Verde was very heartwarming. Dr. Michael Bullard, a pediatric ophthalmologist from the Utah Eye Centers came to train eye doctors from 3 islands—São Vicente, Santiago, and Sal-- how to do strabismus surgery for children whose eyes are misaligned. Dr. Bullard arrived on Monday in time to start seeing patients at 1:00 PM. He examined 50 persons with very notable strabismus, most of them from 2 to 9 years-old.
Parents and their children waited patiently in a tiny lobby for their turn to be evaluated. Because there were so few chairs, most mothers stood, (often holding the younger children) for 1-9 hours, waiting to be seen. Each child was carefully evaluated and their eye muscles measured one more time, to determine if the surgery would benefit them. Dr. Bullard and all the eye doctors and staff were seeing children and a few older persons until after 10 PM on Monday. The last 3-4 children needed to be awakened in order to examine them.
One early challenge was trying to locate and retrieve Dr. Bullard’s luggage which was lost in Lisbon on Sunday. It did not merely have his clothes, but instead the surgical sets and vital ophthalmic equipment. They were finally located in Lisbon and flown to Praia on the island of Santiago. They promised that the bags would be flown to us in Mindelo by Monday evening. Monday night came and they were not on the flight from Praia. With help from Mission and community leaders, they were able to make sure that the bags came on Tuesday morning. We immediately took the surgical sets and equipment to the hospital to be sterilized. Dr. Bullard started surgeries at 1:00 PM and continued through 9 PM. Dr. Bullard was phenomenal, doing all this after a 2+ day flight to get here. However, the first two longs days left most of us very tired.
Six patients were operated on each day on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, plus 4 more on Friday. The operations were quite long and required general anesthesia. Following the surgeries, the parents were extremely delighted to see their children’s eyes straight for the first time. It was miraculous. Each day we saw gratitude from so many parents.
The real target of this project, however, was for Dr. Bullard to train the eye doctors here in doing this strabismus surgery so that they in turn can operate on children and others in need. Previously, no ophthalmologists in Cape Verde had done this surgery here. Yet it is crucial to help prevent vision loss and perhaps even blindness. This will assist the ophthalmologists here to help children who previously went untreated, and often lost vision permanently. We are very grateful to see this project come to fruition. What a blessing this surgery and training will be here in Cape Verde.
And (they) went about doing good.
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