New Orleans group helps 2-year-old Belize girl

Monday, October 27, 2003

TERRYTOWN, USA: For the past seven months, a group of volunteers from the New Orleans area has worked tirelessly to try to get medical help for a 2-year-old Belize girl suffering from a birth defect that deformed her arm. 

According to the Times Picayune, after pleading with hospitals and calling all their medical contacts, the volunteers with the Belize Association of Louisiana and the International Hospital for Children, or IHC, a Terrytown-based medical mission group, had almost given up hope. 

But thanks to the organizations' efforts, Mary Elizabeth Joo will be treated at the Shriners Hospital in Shreveport.

"I almost cried," said Jean Smith Benard, a board member of the IHC and the honorary consul for Belize in New Orleans. "You could just see God's hand opening doors." 

The victory was just one more in a long line of similar feats achieved by the 22-year-old IHC and its steadfast volunteers, who raise money to purchase and ship medical supplies and equipment to developing nations. They also occasionally transport patients to treatment in the United States when they require a level of care not provided in their home countries. 

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