Hospital Donation Benefits Disabled Children

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You & Your Family

Saturday, 14 May 2011 02:30

By caribarena news

Antigua St John's - A donation to the Mount St John's Medical Centre (MSMJC) has changed the lives of several disabled children in Antigua.

According to Marketing & Communications Manager Salma Crump, the large donation of technical aids and appliances followed a visit to the island by a group of teens from the Shady Grove Wesleyan Holiness Church in North Carolina.

They initially came on a mission trip to Antigua for a work project, and visited the Amazing Grace Foundation orphanage. One of the teens, Sydney Fletcher, was so affected by the visit that when she returned home to the US, she told her father (Derek Fletcher) something needed to be done for the disabled children.

Fletcher, who works for a company that builds and sells devices for disabled children, came to Antigua himself in 2010 with the teenagers. Pastor Tony Parsons accompanied them.

Fletcher visited Amazing Grace and felt he could get numerous devices to help the children. While in Antigua, he met with Crump and offered to donate numerous devices to the hospital that would help the children in the physiotherapy department.

Crump set up an appointment for Fletcher to meet with MSJMC Rehabilitation Manager Barbara Bird, and that started a partnership to get the devices to Antigua.

The cost for shipping was raised by the church’s youth group. On May 9, Derek and Sydney Fletcher, along with Pastor  Parsons, unloaded a container with over 100 donated devices including wheelchairs, strollers, and walkers that can be used for therapy for the children affected with childhood crippling diseases in Antigua and other surrounding islands.

Crump said in her release, “When I saw the first child, not more than three years old, being fitted for a wheelchair, it brought tears to my eyes. Because I know we were helping to make a big difference in his life. And that’s what it’s all about.

He was pushing himself around in a matter of minutes. Prior to this, he was being toted around by his mom in a stroller, which was doing more harm than good. The feeling you get is indescribable.”

She added, “I cannot begin to thank Derek and his daughter Sydney and Pastor Parsons and his congregation, especially the youth group back in North Carolina.

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