Ishy's story, part 1

We're back home in Puerto Rico after an emotional trip to Ohio. It wasn't a rollercoaster trip this time. The highs just kept getting higher. Many MANY tears were shed - tears of joy, tears of wonder, tears of love, tears of gratitude. The only tears of sadness were the few shed as we said goodbye to Cindi, Annelta Pierre and Ishmael. We shared more hugs of joy, love, gratitude (and yes, a little sadness) as we said adios (for now) to our family in Michigan and Ohio.

But this - us home in Puerto Rico and Annelta and Ishy home in St. Lucia - is the end point of this part of the story. 

This story begins last fall in St. Lucia when Elaine first met Ishmael and his mother Annelta. Ishmael (aka "Ishy") was born three-and-a-half years ago with a cleft lip and alveolar ridge. In the States and most developed countries the surgery to correct this would have been done when Ishy was three or four months old. St. Lucia has no surgeon to perform this surgery, no hospital equipped for it.

 Ishy. Look at the smile in those eyes!

Ishy was actually born on the island of Martinique where Annelta was working as a security guard, making about $2,000 a year. Still, she managed to save nearly $4,000 to get Ishy to the United States where she was told he could get the surgery he needed. In Martinque she was given some very bad advice. She was told she could get the surgery from a particular U.S. doctor, but...she was told that when she went for travel visas to Barbados (the nearest U.S. consulate where anyone in the Caribbean must go if they wish to obtain a U.S. visa) she should tell them she was taking her son on vacation to the U.S. because there was "too much paperwork" involved if she said she was going for surgery for her son.

A single mom. Limited income. Limited savings. Vacation? Can you say, "red flag" to U.S. immigration? Visas denied. And for Annelta, the worst day of her life.

 Annelta (Ishy's mother), Adele (Ishy's one-year-old brother) and Ishy

There is an organization called World Pediatric Project (WPP) that provides surgery and medical help for children in the Caribbean with special medical needs. They help as many children as they can, but the number is limited every year and cases are triaged based on medical need. The problem was because Annelta tried to get help through different channels, she missed her window to apply to the WPP. By the time she could apply again - if WPP accepted Ishy - chances are he would be nearly six years old before the corrective surgery. And, by then he would have been in regular school.

People everywhere can be cruel to those who are different. People are no different in St Lucia. Just because of his looks, Ishy had already become a "marked child." That doesn't even take into consideration his physical difficulties with eating, drinking, speaking.

To all this add one more wrinkle: Annelta needed surgery herself that wiped out virtually all the money she'd saved for Ishy's surgery.

It is somewhere about here that Elaine enters the story as a speech-language pathologist working in the Child Guidance and Development Centre (CGDC) in St. Lucia. She began seeing Ishy as his speech therapist. 

 Ishy eating lunch at his preschool in St Lucia.

Although Ishy made great progress and became much more understandable with his speech, Elaine couldn't help but think there had to be a way to get surgery for Ishy. It is - as surgeries go - relatively common, relatively easy. And as disabilities go, easily fixed. We can make life in our world easier for a child with Down's Syndrome for example, or cerebral palsy, but we can't fix those. But, she reasoned, this could be "fixed," so Ishy would not even have a disability. 

Of course there were a few obstacles to overcome - a surgeon, a hospital, a location, travel, money and those pesky visas. So next up - connections.