St. Stephen parishioners travel with Impact Ministry Team to Dominican Republic
WARWICK — Once again they provided comfort and medical care for poor Haitian families living in the Dominican Republic.
Recently a group of parishioners from the RC Church of St. Stephen, the First Martyr in Warwick, joined an Island Impact Ministries mission to serve 800 patients in mainly Haitian villages in the northern region of the Dominican Republic.
Island Impact Ministries is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing medical, educational, spiritual, and construction assistance to the people of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The team included 28 members composed of one physician, three Nurse Practitioners, six Registered Nurses, 11 University of Scranton Nursing Students, one translator and six support staff.
The members of the St. Stephen's team were Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. John Juliano, Katherine Juliano, RN, a St. Stephen-St. Edward School alumni, Janette Garneau, St. Stephen PreK Teacher and Spanish to English translator, James and Andrew Juliano, also St. Stephen-St. Edward School alumni who provided pharmacy support along with St. Stephen-St. Edward School PE Teacher Janet Grahn and Mary Juliano.
The team traveled with 1400 pounds of prescription medications, over the counter medications, personal hygiene items and toys for the children.
Most notable illness included untreated and undiagnosed hypertension, parasites, fungal skin infections and heartburn.
The patients were triaged by junior and senior nursing students from the University of Scranton and then examined by the team of nurses, nurse practitioners and the physician. Villagers would then receive medication to treat their conditions.
Mary Juliano explained that even though medical and dental treatment is available to these villagers through the government hospital or Island Impact Ministries outpatient clinic, most will not follow up for care outside their village.
"A most hopeful outcome from this trip," she said, "is that a physician and nurse now have funding to visit one of the villages monthly to provide regular and consistent medical care. This is a most positive step towards breaking the cycle of poverty for these villagers so they can lead more productive and healthy lives."
- Roger Gavan