Teen works to assist the needy

When Kendra Kline, a student at the Academy of the Holy Names in Albany, recently arrived in Nicaragua, one of the first people she hoped to see was little Hector, who attends a center for children with disabilities in the city of Chiquilistagua.

"He was born with a disease that in America is treatable; in Nicaragua, he's in a wheelchair," said Kendra, 17, who returned home to Glens Falls at the end of February.

"He's so sweet and so smart," she said, "and he has so much potential."

Regular visits

Kendra has made many friends in the Central American town as a result of spending three winter breaks with the North Country Mission of Hope, a multi-denominational charity group headquartered in Plattsburgh.

The group works with various governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations to provide residents of Chiquilistagua, Monte Verde and Managua with nutrition, healthcare, education and community development.

Kendra, a parishioner of St. Mary's Church in Glens Falls, is an altar server and teaches a First Communion class to second-graders.

"I grew up in a religious family," she said, "and I've found that by placing some of your problems in God's hands and always having the Holy Spirit with you helps so much more to be able to deal with things emotionally down there, because it's hard."

Fund-raising

When Kendra presented a PowerPoint program at her school about one of her visits and what fellow students could do to help, she raised $1,250 in donations to help feed children at the Colegio de Jesus Catholic school in Chiquilistagua.

She also collected more than $900 worth of multivitamins to be distributed to poor kids.

"I was so shocked," she said, noting that it takes 25 cents to feed a Colegio child for a day. "That's going to be able to feed the children for a long time."

Sharing

Kendra first heard about the medical mission trips when she was 14.

Inspired to help by tales she heard of poverty, she convinced her father -- an optometrist -- to go.

"I said, 'Dad, Dad, we have to go on this mission together, and you can be the eye doctor, and I can help you,'" she recalled. "I felt that I could help people that hadn't as much as I did. I have a lot of things, and I felt obligated to share."

Much to do

On her trips, Kendra has built houses, painted an orphanage and done "lots of water purification." In Chiquilistagua, she has helped with therapy activities at a disabilities services center.

But the program she enjoys the most is Children Feeding Children. Teenagers on the trip cook rice and beans in the morning; purify water, make juice, and bring the lunches to each classroom; and teach the children about health and cleanliness.

She noticed that some students packed their lunches and brought them home, and asked why. "The children who have a little money will eat during lunch," she said, while the poorer children take the food home to share with their families.

Translation

Kendra, who is taking college-level Spanish at Holy Names, has served as a translator for some of the adult doctors on the mission.

They go from house to house, making calls to people who can't get to a clinic. Going to the hospital in Nicaragua often takes much more money than poor families can afford, she explained, so foreign doctors do basic check-ups and treat illnesses in the homes of the poor.

She hopes to become one of those doctors. A "science and math person," Kendra sees herself going into the medical field and continuing to help people through medical mission trips.

"The people have so many basic problems that could be solved so easily in the U.S.," she noted "It breaks my heart to see some of these little kids that have disabilities that could be treated. That's one of the hardest things -- to know that if they'd been born in a different environment, how much different their lives could have been. But that's what we're doing. For the next generation, we're trying to improve that."

(Kendra pays for her plane ticket to Nicaragua every year with proceeds from her summer lifeguarding job.)

(3/8/07) [[In-content Ad]]