Venezuela’s Mission Miracle ready to help people to see the light
alexander rabinowich
Mission Miracle, Venezuela’s medical eye mission to Belize has assisted one hundred and ninety eight Belizeans across the country to remedy eye afflictions. The medical team comes to Belize every month and a half to diagnose new patients and to check the progress of those who have already received surgeries in Venezuela. Members of Mission Miracle stopped by News Five’s studios to tell the public about the work they have been doing since they arrived over the weekend.
Alexander Rabinowich, Representative, Mission Miracle
“We are two ophthalmologists, one internist who came from Venezuela to examine people here from Belize and try to help learn about eye diseases like cataract, pterygium and estravism. We also check some other medical diseases. Some of them require medical treatment and some require surgical treatment. So those who were diagnosed with surgical illnesses are taken to Venezuela and have surgical treatment there.”
Emerson Guild, Belize Coordinator, Mission Miracle
“At the moment we’re travelling with seven people. We’re visiting every single district. We’re leaving Corozal today and going towards Belmopan and Benque tomorrow. Then we move on to Dangriga, Punta Gorda and back to San Ignacio and then Belize City next Saturday. We are asking the Belizean public to take advantage of this program. It is one of the best programs that have ever reached our borders and every Belizean who has the need should use it.”
Hey! And when are they coming to Ambergris Caye or Caye Caulker we are also part of Belize u know!!!
The money spent on this “miracle”, whether it is the Venezuelan or Belizean government paying for the surgeries, flights, food, accommodation and so on, would be far more efficiently spent improving the infrastructure in Belize. BCVI actually does pterygium surgery for $300Bz and cataract for $600Bz, a tiny fraction of the cost to send these patients to Venezuela. Belizeans often say that we should support Belizean businesses – well that should include home-grown Belizean NGOs. BCVI has been working to take care of Belizeans’ eyes for almost 30 years, at affordable and flexible prices, with many patients getting their surgery for free when they truly cannot afford to pay. What if these patients coming back from Venezuela suffer problems after the surgery? You can be sure that the Venezualan/Belizean government will not want to pay to fly them back for every subsequent check-up and/or consultation they need as a result of their surgery. Instead they will most probably end up at BCVI. Belize should invest in its OWN healthcare system, and those NGOs that support it, like BCVI, BFLA, Hand-in-Hand Ministries and the like, instead of accepting “freebies” from overseas, when in actual fact the amount of money spent on these “freebies” could provide the same treatment to the same standard on Belizean soil for ten times as many people.