The Bequia Mission

Newsletter

Spring 2003

Box 185, Lakefield, ON K0L-2H0

Phone 705-652-6680, Fax 705-652-1527 e mail pbutcher@nexicom.net

Making the Mission Part of Your Life

With your kind support the Mission has continued to provide assistance to both the young and the old in St. Vincent the Grenadines. We are happy to report that on Bequia we have a local committee to make the day to day decisions on who needs our financial support. Liz Thomas no longer has to carry out this job by herself.

The photos that fill this Newsletter were taken by our vice president Gerry Bird on his recent outreach trip with his wife Sandra and ten High School students. As a retired teacher I have always thought that an exposure to Bequia and its people would be a wonderful learning experience for our High School students. In my wildest dreams, I had never imagined how well this trip would turn out for the students and the people they met. These young people sweated under the loads of stuff they brought for the kids they visited, they slept on floors, crammed into vans and embraced a totally new culture and people with a passion and a compassion that has renewed my pride in being part of the Mission and associated with Lakefield College School.

As you can see from the report of our recent Board meeting, we have allocated all the money we have on hand. We remain true to the faith of the Armstrongs that if we make the needs of others known they will be met by those that have the means to do so. The list of people who need our support has not got any shorter. We are especially happy to make a contribution to the care of the orphans that have H.I.V. and Aids. Brenda Rogers saw this as an area of increasing need in the future. The future has arrived on St. Vincent which has the highest incidence of Aids in the Western Hemisphere. While our support for High School students on Bequia has diminished, the most needy families can get support through the local committee. At the same we are able to help kids who have no families at all.

We continue to care for Glenson who you may remember from our Christmas appeal of two years ago. Glenson has now been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and we look for ways to make his life more comfortable. Antonio is thriving after his heart surgery but unfortunately Antonio's father has been left paralyzed by the "bends". One of the early efforts of the Mission was to sponsor diver training. It is disheartening to think that men still suffer a lifteime of disability from their efforts to make a living. I can not look at those glossy tourist brochures of lobster dinners without thinking about the riske that men like Antonio's father take to put the delicacy on the table and less fancy food on theirs.

Our lives are made more meaningful through our involvement with the Bequia Mission. We hope the same will true for you.

May Every Blessing Come Your Way

Patrick Butcher-- President

An impromptu hymn sing with residents of the Lewis Punnette Home.

Standing (L to R): Graham Warden, Keith Zippel, Sarah Burton-Davies, Lindsay Joseph, Hilary Bird, Kat Rogers.

Keith Zippel and Chad Edwards distributing the ditty bags from the Outreach Group at St, Davids, Orillia.

Seniors' Lunch Program

The seniors' lunch program has continued over the past year with the generous assistance of Mission supporters in Canada, the Community Health Nurses, and Valcina Chambers and her staff at the Food Basket in Bequia. About a dozen elderly shut-ins currently receive a hot lunch delivered to their home once a week, although Sandra and Gerry found that many of them stretch this nourishing meal, of rice and chicken or fish, out over two or three days.

Mission to Schools

Sunshine School

Levan James with some of the many student-made projects at the Sunshine Shop, the woodworking shop established by The Mission (and carrying on under Levan's supervision) in the basement of the Sunshine School.

Graham Warden assists Hansley in constructing a kite for

the upcoming Karib Cable Kite Flying Competition at the Bequia Easter Regatta.

Greg Thomas, Chairman of the Sunshine Board writes:

"The school has decided to send Clerice to Jamacia for special ed. training and we are looking at a cost of about $125,000EC over the next three years to cover all the costs. We felt this was necessary at this time since Pinky only has 5 more years before the government retirement age and she is not sure of her plans beyond that, so we wanted to have someone trained to take over as headmistress should she decide to stop teaching. So I thought perhaps you could help us raise some of the funds needed. Thanks for what ever you can do"

If you are interested in supporting this fund raising effort please let us know and we will see that your donation is forwarded to Sunshine.

School Supplies

The folks who know when a child needs a little lunch money or a new pencil are the Principals of the schools. The Mission has seen that every principal on the island received a cheque for between $100 and $200 for such emergencies. There are six schools on Bequia. Our teenage couriers lugged bags of paper, rulers, erasers, pens, pencils, craft supplies and printer cartridges.

Seventh Day Adventist Primary School students on Bequia

At left: Chad Edwards, Matthew Sheppard -Brown and Sarah Burton-Davies with some of the school supplies.

St. Benedict's Day Nursery and Infant Hospital

St. Benedict's Day Nursery in Georgetown, St. Vincent was established in 1963 by the late Fr. Roland Roberts of the Scarborough Fathers in Canada. The information leaflet explains that Georgetown was Father's first appointment as a Parish Priest and he was dismayed to find that he was conducting from two to four infant funerals each week. Their deaths were mainly due to malnutrition and accompanying complications. This was the deciding factor in opening St. Benedict's. Although Fr. Roberts died in 1994 at the age of 88, his dream has come to fruition. Under the loving guidance of Sister Nyra, a member of the Carmelite Order, St. Benedict's daily cares for 170 children from age three months to four and a half years. About twenty of them live full-time in the adjoining Infant Hospital which we visited on our trip. This is a twelve bed ward for malnourished children and battered and abandoned infants. St. Vincent and the Grenadines has no Orphanage so the Hospital and Day Nursery must act as one. Although the Hospital has only 12 beds, the staff often care for more than twenty infants at a time. The original cribs are waist-high with a shelf a foot or so above the floor. At night, this serves as a bed for many of the children. The Hospital also functions as an Out-Patient clinic. It is free of charge and cares for both children and adults. Neither the Day Nursery nor the Infant Hospital receives any government funding; both are financed by the personal contributions of interested individuals. Through the generosity of our supporters, over the past year The Mission has donated over $1000 and shipped four barrels of used children's clothing, toys and medical supplies in support of this very worthwhile organization.

Liberty Lodge Training Centre For Boys

- Although the stigma on St. Vincent and Bequia is that Liberty Lodge is for "bad boys", the small group of dedicated staff were quick to point out that nothing could be further from the truth. Liberty Lodge is home to about twenty five boys, aged 8 - 16, most of whom have been orphaned, abandoned or abused. While it's true that some had previously had troubles with truancy or brushes with the law, we were extremely impressed with how well-adjusted, polite, and genuinely pleased to see us the boys were.

After a heart-warming welcoming ceremony, we were given an authentic West Indian lunch. We then presented the donations of used sports equipment, personal care items and school supplies that we had brought with us. We would like to thank the Mission supporters for supplying these items, particularly the Ontario Soccer Association who donated a large selection of used soccer balls, hats and uniforms. After lunch, the Lakefield students were taken on a tour of the facility and joined the boys in a rousing game of cricket and soccer on the two tiny games fields that had been carved out of the steep hillside.

Liberty Lodge Boys With Breadfruit. In addition to classrooms, a dormitory and woodworking shop, the centre is surrounded by close to ten acres of forest and agricultural land. Farming is an important part of the curriculum and under the guidance of a teacher the boys tend plots of potatoes, yams, beans, corn, and eddoes on the steep hillside property. They also delighted in helping us sample the abundance of local fruits, which include mangoes, bananas, sour sop, guavas and breadfruit.

Bread of Life Community

(Home for Abandoned children and those with HIV/Aids)

Sister Zita, pictured here with Sandra Bird, has made a life lasting impression on Sandra. It is Sister Zita's faith and determination that keep her small refuge going. Sister Zita at the end of an exhausting day with bare cupboards, according to Sandra prayed. " God this is your business we are looking after here and you had better do something about it." If the Bequia Mission is in any way involved in an answer to that prayer we are truly blessed and privileged. It is Sister Zita who cooks, cleans and tends to her eight or ten young people who thrive in her care.

Board of Directors meeting

On February 22nd the Board of Directors of the Bequia Mission met to approve a preliminary budget for the coming year. E-mail allows Board members to make many decisions on a day to day basis.

Liz Thomas of Bequia who has resigned from the Board of Directors will be greatly missed but we are happy to see that Liz is a member of the Bequia Local Management Committee.

The meeting discussed the details of Gerry and Sandra Bird returning to Bequia with a group of teenagers and Loxi Street organizing shipments to schools, hospitals and orphanages.

The Local Bequia Committee which Gerry and Sandra were instrumental in organizing is now up and functioning with an initial grant of $10,000 to meet individual requests for financial support on the island. These folks know which children need help in getting to school and which families need food and clothing as well as help with medical expenses.

In his budget presentation, George Irwin noted that donations are down. With $25000 in the current account, it was recommended that we strike a preliminary budget to this amount with the hope that we could sustain this level of giving in the coming year.

$11,000 to the Local Committee for individual and family support. --$2000.00 Childrens' Services on St. Vincent-- $3000.00 shipping --

$3000.00 Board Discretionary and Special Appeals--$3000 for supplies and emergency funds for schools--$3000.00 Administration: printing, mailing, one air fare.

Missing in this budget is any allowance for Mission support of the students and needy people on Union Island. It is hoped that this situation can be remedied with the formation of a local committee but at the moment the Mission is without representation on Union Island. Also to be addressed in the next meeting is the support of post secondary education. There is some income from the Pearl Clark Fund in support of post secondary education but not enough to meet the level of support given in the last few years.

The next meeting of the Board and Corporation will be a picnic at Lakefield College School on June 15/03. An invitation is once again extended to all our supporters to let us know if you would like to be a Corporation member willing to attend this meeting to consider the election of officers and a final budget approval for the coming year.

Bequia Mission Local Management Committee. Back Row (L to R): Morrie Hercules, Sylvester Tannis (Chair), Elaine Ollivierre, Sitting (L to R): Veryl Adams, Liz Thomas, Myrtle James, Carmette Gooding, Patsy Chambers.

The Mission Board of Directors were happy to accept a dinner invitation to the McComb"s comfortable home after a busy afternoon meeting. Standing: Gerry Bird, vice president, Rod McComb, past president, Ravnel King vsiting friend forn Bequia. Pat Butcher, president. Sitting: Rhelda Stockall, Director, Ruth Butcher, Secretary,Sandra Bird Director, Joan Irwin and Sal McComb

The Bequia Mission Newsletter -Fall 2003

Box 185, Lakefield, ON K0L-2H0 Phone 705-652-6680, Fax 705-652-1527 e mail pbutcher@nexicom.net

Dear Friends of the Bequia Mission

This is just a short note to remind you that the Mission is still busy providing assistance to those in need on Bequia as well as St. Vincent and Union Island. Your continued support will be greatly appreciated.

We continue to help desperate families send children to school. Students that need help meeting school expenses now apply to the local committee of the Bequia Mission which determines their specific needs and offers appropriate assistance. Cheques for shoes, school supplies, lunches and school fees are issued by the local volunteers who are very familiar with the recipients of the assistance. To avoid local gossip, care is taken to protect the identity of students and families that are helped by our supporters. We no longer pair up students and donnors.

Lately we have been providing more money for medical care. While it would be inappropriate to publish the names of those people that have received our help in paying for a hysterectomy or treatments for prostrate cancer, it is not hard to imagine the relief that your support of the Mission has brought to these poor people. I can bring you news of Glenson Ollivierre who continues to need help with the treatment of sickle cell anaemia. You may remember that we made a special appeal for funds for brain surgery that alleviated Glenson's terrible headaches. Rosann Gordon has happily had her final cataract surgery. We continue to assist others with eye exams and glasses.

There are times when the fact that we have funds available on the island can make a big difference in the timely treatment of a medical problem. A tumour on the liver of a little girl is not something that waits while we appeal for funds for a CAT scan and treatment. The past generosity of donors like you means that we could act quickly. A CAT scan on ST. Vincent costs $2400 e.c. Life saving surgery was performed in Barbados.

Fortunately the Bequia Mission is not alone in its concern for the people in the islands. Local families give generously to help their fellow islanders. Other charities like Rotary do a lot of good work in the islands. We could never pay for surgery that has to be done in the United States but we will be helping a young Bequia boy, Levon Stowe, receive such surgery. (continued on page 2)

Rhonda and Keith Creasor at the Mission Picnic

Senior's Lunch ready to go

Union Island Hospital

Colwin Working In the Sunshine Shop

Liz Thomas writes:

"Levon, a 10 year old, has Laryngeal Papillomatosis.  In 2000 he had a tracheostomy tube inserted to enable him to breathe, but the condition has now progressed and he needs to have the papillomas removed, which needs to be done by laser.  Through the Rotary International and the International Hospital for Children in Richmond, Virginia, who will do the surgery and provide housing for Levon and his mother while there, he will be having the surgery which will allow him to breathe properly and have the trach tube removed, probably in October of this year.  However, they need about $4000.EC for the airfares for both mother and Levon."

While Liz is working very hard to raise some of the money for Levon from the expatriate community on Bequia, I am sure that our regular Canadian donors would be happy to support such a cause.

Sunshine School has taken positive steps to see that it has trained teachers. Clerise has been accepted into Mico College for Special Education training, and we are very excited about that. Helen has been accepted into teachers college in St. Vincent and as far as we know will be going. Sunshine is still looking for more funds, even more so now with two teachers going away to school and presumably two more teachers hired on to fill in for them.

We continue to encourage people to go to the islands as volunteers. Elaine Ollivierre, the Principal of the Anglican High School, would welcome tutors to help students catch up. Ken Williams writes that the Union Island High School is in need of a number of teachers. I was happy to hear from a recent graduate from an English University who wants to teach in the islands. I hope that we can arrange a place for her and find enough financial support to make it happen.

Our Fall shipment is being arranged by Loxi Street who is always busy bargain hunting and encouraging donations to the shipment. Loxi will also be working the phones to be sure that what she ships is what is needed at the orphanages and schools that she is very familiar with. Rhealda Stockall has aquired tens of thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to include in our shipment. All of this material will be examined and sorted by a medical doctor to assure us that it will be of value in an island hospital. Included in the shipment will science lab equipment from Lakefield College for the Bequia Anglican High School.

I am happy to report that the enthusiasm of the students on the lakefield College outreach trip to Bequia last March has inspired some of their parents to support the Mission's work. As often happens, a trip to Bequia goes straight to your heart.

Our enthusiasm for Bequia can be catchy. Mike Hazel, who has a long family history on Bequia,

attended our Picnic in June and asked Gerry to bring his slide show to the Toronto Eglinton Rotary Club meeting in Toronto. The club is consequently sending a site inspection team to St. Vincent to investigate the needs of St. Benedicts and the broader needs on St. Vincent.

Your continued interest in and support of the Mission is greatly appreciated by a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

May every blessing come your way

Pat Butcher

This Newsletter and the Spring 2003 edition can be found at

http://www.nexicom.net/~pbutcher/