CRESTVIEW — A recent health care mission in Belize was eye opening for several North Okaloosa residents.
Seventeen volunteers spent a week in the Central American country providing clinical treatments, supplies and health education to people in seven impoverished villages.
Although several volunteers, including organizer Dr. Joseph Peter, were already aware of the area's health care needs, a number of first-time participants — who arrived Aug. 27 and returned last week — said the experience was memorable.
“After getting (to) see the poverty these people lived in, all I wanted to do was help them out even more,” Fallon Simmons, a Crestview registered nurse, said in an email.
Volunteers evaluated and administered physicals to adults and children, and physicians prescribed any necessary medications, Simmons said.
“The thing I enjoyed most from this trip was seeing just how appreciative these people were that we came to help them,” she stated. “They all were so kind and polite at all times. They are willing to walk for miles away just to be seen for an hour by some doctors and nurses.”
Sharlene Cox, who said she helped register nearly 650 people for health screenings, noticed the change in culture.
“There would be people lined up for an hour (before we got to the villages) and you never heard a child throwing a tantrum during that time,” she said.
After seeing Belizeans' eagerness for medical assistance and witnessing their living conditions, Cox said she will not take America for granted.
“It has made me appreciate what we have here in America,” she said.
Loren Wilkinson, a prospective RN, agreed.
“The people we encountered live without basic necessities,” she stated in a Facebook message. “But seeing how others with very little are so grateful each day for what they have is a great lesson.”
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Matthew Brown, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: EYE-OPENING MISSION Residents help impoverished Belizean villages, learn life lessons