Reported By: Kelley Dunn
March 17, 2006
Imagine being sick, deformed or terribly injured...and not having access to a doctor. In many parts of the world...it's a fact of life. But thanks to many dedicated American doctors and nurses on the Treasure Coast...that's beginning to change.
You are about to meet the people behind "The Light of the World Charities" and see how they are changing lives around the world.
Comyagua, Honduras is one of the poorest places in the western hemisphere.
The average family earns less than 18-hundred dollars a year.
"I don't know how they exist. They live in dirt homes, huts there's no jobs. They had basically no health infrastructure and I said that's somewhere…where we can help," says Teresa Banks from Light of the World Charities.
As a nurse, Banks spent many weeks away from her Palm City home volunteering on medical missions in poor countries. She left her full time nursing job and formed "Light of the World Charities" - after hearing about the overwhelming need in Honduras.
"It's a poverty beyond anything you can see here...it's very sad. It makes you go back...it's something that I can never forget."
When Teresa and her volunteer medical teams started going to Comayagua, the working conditions were horrendous.
Dr. Keith Ingram says, "I remember using the light on my watch to look at some things in the operating room and the surgeon was using a flashlight!"
"I brought up to the priest down there - who was working with us - if we could somehow - by some miracle - build our own hospital," says Banks.
The dedication of so many--resulted in the construction of a hospital and today, Centro Medico San Benito Jose treats one thousand patients a month. It's staffed year round by Honduran doctors. American surgical teams visit four times a year...the goal is to have a team go every month.
"It's very rewarding in that I think this is an opportunity to practice medicine for the reasons you went into medicine to begin with," says Ingram.
And there is never a shortage of patients. Once word goes out to the villages...long lines start to form.
"The people are very gracious," says Banks. "You see problems that you normally would not see here in the United States."
Cleft lips and pallets are common in Honduras...and as Dr. Ingram explains, the corrective surgery is often life changing.
"She had a gaping hole in her face. We gave her a mirror and she looked at herself and started crying and everybody was about to see what an impact this had on a patient."
There are thousands of those stories...but it's not just the patients who are changed forever.
"There is no happiness for me in this world in any other way--like finances or whatever. I really like helping those who could never have any help. It's very rewarding," says Banks.
The next mission to Honduras is scheduled for May. “Light of the World” is also branching out to Africa.
For being a beacon of hope—“The Light of the World Charities” and its volunteers are this week’s Kelley's Heroes.
If you would like to volunteer you can call them at 772-221-4688.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT:
lotwcfl@bellsouth.net
www.lightoftheworldcharities.com
