Mission Miracle takes eye patients to Venezuela

alexander yanez

Eye care patients crowded the conference room of the City Center, luggage in hand and ready to board a flight to Venezuela for treatment. They are the first set of beneficiaries of Operacion Milagros or Mission Miracle, which offers them the opportunity to have corrective surgeries done free of cost. Screening was done on February twenty-third and over two hundred persons were selected to go in a series of trips. News Five spoke to coordinators from both Belize and Venezuela about the miracles expected to result from this mission.

Alexander Yanez, Charge d’ Affaires, Venezuelan Embassy

“Today we are sending eighty-two patients to Venezuela, eight coordinators and four campaigners. So we will send ninety-four people to Venezuela for this first flight. It’s totally free for the patients. Venezuela is supporting all of the program; medicines, operation, ticket flight, accommodation and food totally and transport. The Venezuelan government will provide all the services.”

Delahnie Bain

“And after this set of patients go and come back, do you plan to have another round of this mission miracle?”

Alexander Yanez

“Yes, this is a permanent program. So we already selected two hundred and forty-five patients. In this first flight, we are going to take eighty-two patients so we have the rest of the patients and we will need another two or three flights for provide them with eye care. But the idea is if somebody in Belize cannot get evaluation of Venezuelan doctors, we will provide a new delegation in maybe two months. Maybe a new Venezuelan delegation will be here to screen new possible patients.”

Emerson Guild, Belize Coordinator, Mission Miracle

EMERSON GILL

“ Mission Miracle is a program that originated from a conversation between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez in 2005. After travelling throughout the world and throughout this region, they observed that there were so many people in our region and around the world who had these simple conditions but were not able to pay for the services. They decided that6 they would do something about it. What has happened is that they have been able to do in each country somewhere in the area of six thousand surgeries per year since 2005.”