Mission Miracle of intends to open eyes
Back in April 2009, a large crowd gathered at the City Center for the launch of Mission Miracle or Operacion Milagros. But by the end of that month, the Influenza A H1N1, which was introduced then as “swine flu”, posed an international threat and the mission was put on hold. Well, the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is now geared to launch the program. Starting Wednesday morning at the City Center, screening will be conducted on patients with eye ailments that can be surgically corrected. Patients who make it to the list will take an all expense paid trip to Venezuela for surgery and post operational care before returning home. News Five spoke to the coordinator of the activities in Belize City, Michael Theus, who gave us the four-one-one on Mission Miracle.
Michael Theus, Belize City Coordinator, Mission Miracle
“Mission Miracle was actually the brainchild of the Cuban and Venezuelan governments. They wanted to actually give back some type of humanitarian services to the persons who are much more poor. Out of that came where they decided they want to offer the services of dealing with persons who have eye diseases that they would be able to operate on them free of cost and so that’s what they’re actually—we’re working with them on that.”
Delahnie Bain
“Is there any set criteria as to who will be allowed to be a part of it?”
Michael Theus
“No set criteria. Primarily, be a Belizean. If you have you Social Security card, that will be required at the end of it likewise too. If you have eye problems, come out likewise and look into it. Those are some of the criteria; it’s nothing too hard, it’s relatively easy and we anticipate that most persons will actually take advantage of it. It will be more than just a one shot thing. This will be happening on a regular basis and this will be our first event for this year.”
Delahnie Bain
“Okay, is there a set amount of people you’re hoping to reach?”
Michael Theus
“Currently, for the first set of patients we’re looking at a hundred patients to be taken to Venezuela on the twenty-fourth of March. They will be there for ten days while they undergo the operations and the post operative care and after that then they return to Belize. When that is completed, we go through again and we go through a screening again of different persons and we continue along that road hopefully until we get enough persons that have eyesight that we have actually fixed as much as we can.”
On Thursday, the doctors travel to the Help Age Center in Stann Creek and then to the Center for Employment Training in Cayo on Friday. They head to the Northern Regional Hospital in Orange Walk on Saturday and then further north to the Corozal Community Hospital. The final clinic will be held at the Instituto Venezolano para la Cutlura y Cooperacion in Belmopan next Monday. All clinics run from nine a.m. to five p.m.
