Parishes' aid goes south of border

BY MAUREEN MCGUINNESS

Our Lady of Fatima Church in Schenectady and St. Helen's in Niskayuna recently sent a delegation of parishioners to rural Mexico to help provide medical care.

The trip was the most recent activity of their sister-parish relationship with the parish of San Agustin in Cuanacaxtitlan, located in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains about 150 miles east of Acapulco.

The Catholics in the Albany Diocese have helped raise money to bring clean water to the village, purchased livestock and funded the building of a medical clinic.

Health trip

The recent delegation to Mexico included a doctor and residents from St. Clare's Hospital Family Practice residency program. Also along were students from the audiology doctoral program at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Sandrina Range, a parishioner of St. Helen's who served as a translator, said, "It was a wonderful, enriching and rewarding experience. It was a privilege to be there."

She recalled that St. Helen's previous pastor, Rev. James Kane, challenged the community in 2005 to donate the funds needed to build the clinic, and she was grateful that she was present at the clinic's ribbon-cutting.

"It was an emotional moment," she said. "To see the clinic become a reality is a phenomenal accomplishment. The people of St. Helen's and Our Lady of Fatima are responsible for this. We accomplished a lot."

Help brought

Mrs. Range's husband, Michael, went on the trip as a translator for the doctoral students. They hope to raise funds to bring hearing aids to those in need of them.

The clinic "will be valuable to sustain the medical teams going down there on a regular basis," Dr. Range said. "They can give training to people to help them set up programs. We need to do what we can to help them to be self-sufficient."

Debbie McIntosh, a parishioner of St. Helen's, helped organize the trip and accompanied the doctors on their home visits. She was impressed with the role the Catholic Church played for the people of the region.

"The Church seems to play a huge role in the life of the town," she said. "It meets the basic needs of the people" by operating the medical clinic, bringing potable water to the town, and running a pharmacy and credit union.

Repayment

While parishioners of St. Helen's and Our Lady of Fatima have provided much to Mexico, Mrs. McIntosh said, there is much that the local Catholics receive in return from the Mexicans.

"They shared their life with us," she said. "They showed us that living a simple life can be joyous. They live a simple life, rich in family and tradition."

Mrs. McIntosh said she saw the villagers' sacrificial giving first-hand: "When the collection basket came around, there were two eggs in it. They shared what was important to them. It was pretty awesome."

(02/21/08)