“Creating a Light…”
AMSA officers Mara Weinstein, Moises Velez, Christina Ferrucci, and Ashley Jones discuss how the AMSA Chapter at the American University of Antigua has helped teenage girls 
AMSA Officers and members at the “Welcome Home” gathering for Tirisa at the V.C. Bird International Airport in Antigua.. From Left to Right (Bottom row) Jasmine Riviere, Christina Ferrucci, Tirisa (post-surgery), Mara Weinstein, Ashley Jones, Moises Velez. (Middle Row) Major Carmen Mott, Keri Walker, Brittany Davis, Edel Jose, Leonard McLean. (Top Row) Sunshine Girl, Shephali Kadia, Ifrah Abdi.
The Salvation Army’s Sunshine Home for Girls is an interim housing facility in Antigua, for young girls from the ages of 10-17 years old. Social services remove these girls from inappropriate homes to provide them with a better environment. The American Medical Student Association’s Chapter at the American University of Antigua (AUA) has worked closely with this home by mentoring the girls so they can establish the necessary values as they enter their teen years. Every Friday afternoon, the girls take a bus to the AUA campus and meet with their student mentors to participate in various activities. Some evenings are set aside for interactive workshops to enhance leadership skills, improving self-esteem and learning about sexual education. The other evenings are dedicated to teaching the girls valuable computer skills such as creating power-point presentations and navigating through the internet.
While working with the girls on the computers at the AUA campus library, members of AMSA realized that one of the younger 10 year old girls, Tirisa, was having major difficulty reading the text and seeing images on the screen. In order to identify the color of an object or to read a sentence she would have to turn her head to one side and move very close to the screen. It was as if she could only see out of her peripheral vision in both eyes.
When we first inquired about Tirisa’s condition, her guardian, Salvation Army Major Carmen Mott, told us that she had seen a few doctors when she was 6 yrs old who declared her case inoperable. Major Mott was told that Tirisa would eventually become blind.
Despite this disheartening news, AMSA at AUA felt that there was still something that could be done to help Tirisa. We contacted Dr. Ian Walwyn, one of two ophthalmologists in Antigua who agreed to see Tirisa when he had an opening in his schedule. Members of AMSA at AUA accompanied Tirisa to his office and waited with her for 6 hours for a spot to open. When Dr. Walwyn examined Tirisa and discovered that she had congenital nystagmus, microopthalmia and severe cataracts which is why she could only see her peripheries. Dr. Walwyn referred Tirisa to a pediatric ophthalmologist in Jamaica, Dr. Leon Vaughan, who agreed to perform bilateral cataract surgery on Tirisa’s eyes.
Due to inadequate facilities here in Antigua, Tirisa and Major Mott, traveled to Jamaica where this surgery could be performed adequately. AMSA at AUA provided two roundtrip airplane tickets, doctor visits, the cost of surgery, 3000 USD, passport expenses, and 600 USD of spending money for food and transportation for the duration of two weeks. This total of 4557 USD could not have been raised without the help of the AUA student body and faculty! We even were fortunate enough to receive donations from outside of the AUA and Antiguan community. We received a large donation from Delta Gamma sorority at Syracuse University.
Thanks to the wonderful doctors and nurses involved, Tirisa successfully had her first cataract surgery on Friday, November 16, 2007. She was so excited that she could see clearly from her first surgical repair that she couldn’t wait to have surgery again to fix her other eye. A whole new world has been opened up to Tirisa, and she is extremely excited about her new vision!
Giving a child the gift of sight is a priceless treasure. For Tirisa, it is as if she has been kept in the darkness and is now finally given the chance to see a light she never knew existed. Planning and fundraising for this trip was accomplished through hard work, dedication and faith. We are eternally grateful for all of the support, donations, and contributions we received to help make this dream of giving a young girl her sight, a reality!
AMSA Officers 2007-2008
Mara Weinstein
Chapter President
marachaye@gmail.com
Moises Velez
Chapter Vice President
chemicalremedy@gmail.com
Christina Ferrucci
Chapter Secretary
christina816@gmail.com
Ashley Jones
Chapter Treasurer
jonesashley@gmail.com
All of the AMSA officers are currently 2nd year Medical Students studying in Baltimore, MD for their 5th semester Introduction to Clinical Medicine course at Harbor Hospital Center. For other AMSA at AUA events and activities please visit our webpage at: http://groups.google.com/group/amsaaua
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