Print Issue: August 15, 2002

Little Yolanda Sees Clearly Thanks To Mission Group's Efforts

LaVonne Markel gets a special hug from Yolanda Hernandez. The efforts of Markel, a registered nurse here in Atlanta, helped the Nicaraguan child receive surgery to remove cataracts from her eyes. (Photo by Stan Leary/Archdiocese of Atlanta.)

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ALPHARETTA - Yolanda del Carmen Hernandez, wearing her new bifocal glasses, runs to the door as LaVonne Markel walks in. The 6-year-old gives her a big hug, then jumps into the lap of her friend, eagerly showing her an animal picture book. "Si pero, si pero," Markel responds, as the sprightly little girl points to a dog picture.

Markel is amazed and delighted.

While most 6-year-olds can navigate more than a simple picture book, Yolanda, a street child from the slums of Nicaragua, is learning to really see for the first time, thanks to her friend, and a host of others who were moved by the little girl's plight.

Markel, a nurse at Northside Hospital, arranged with a doctor here to provide Yolanda with free cataract surgery, removing the film from her pretty eyes.

'You don't know how unusual this is for her to be doing this, looking at books," said Markel, a member of St. Brendan's Church, Cumming. "When she arrived she was very docile, just wanted to be hugged all the time and carried all the time and from the time she's had the surgery she's been a total monkey. She's so excited about the books. She can see up close." Markel's husband Howard and other members of a mission team from nearby St. Brigid's Church, Alpharetta, first met Yolanda on a mission trip last February to the Hogar Belen, the only home for abandoned, disabled children in Nicaragua. The orphanage in extremely poor Managua, Nicaragua, opened in 2000, and is run by Mustard Seed Communities, which also serves abandoned and disabled children in Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Before coming to Hogar Belen a year and a half ago, Yolanda had been found living on the streets with her father, in his 70s, while her mother, in her 20s, had abandoned the family.

At the orphanage, the Georgia missionaries observed Yolanda squinting a lot and walking cautiously.

Team member Gina Gianfagna took her to a Nicaraguan ophthalmologist where she learned Yolanda needed surgery for cataracts, a clouding of the lens of the eye. But the Nicaraguan medical facilities lacked equipment and expertise to perform it.

That galvanized the mission team to do something about Yolanda's sight.

Already an affectionate child, Yolanda blossomed even more after her surgery. Some of her favorite things to do included playing with her baby doll and jumping on the trampoline.

Daphne Nordone, one of the mission team members, was moved by Yolanda's plight in the orphanage. "How could we go home to our previous lives knowing she would go blind? So that's when we all went back and started networking on who could do the surgery."

Markel, a nurse in the department of surgery at Northside Hospital, approached ophthalmologist Dr. Jesse Lester who told her "he'd be thrilled to do it." She then asked Northside Hospital CEO Sid Kirshner about funding for the procedure.

The next day they got the call: The procedure, which normally costs about $2,000 per eye, would be done for free.

Surgical services raised $650 at the hospital through dessert sales. There were some obstacles still. Planners faced frustrating setbacks in getting Yolanda's travel permit. But then, after much effort, and patience, the little girl arrived.

For the first week of Yolanda's stay, Diane and Russ Prindle hosted her. then Nordone, who went on the mission trip, hosted Yolanda, and also Fabio Emilio Silva, director of the Nicaraguan home, and Michelle Graham, administrator, for the latter part of the trip to Atlanta in her Alpharetta home. (Gener-ous donors sent back over $6,000 in donations with Graham when she returned to the orphanage, to help other children.)

Everyone noticed how Yolanda's personality brightened after the surgery. "She's a very loving and friendly child, so even though she couldn't see that well she was still excited to see people and give them hugs," said Nordone. "But once she had her surgery she became even more comfortable with new people, and saying hola and doing high fives and blowing kisses. She can (also) understand English and follow directions . . . She's also greatly increased her speech since she's been here. She really didn't talk at all before she came. And we just think it's being in an environment where she's got so much attention, there's so many new things."

While staying in Atlanta, Yolanda enjoyed going to Stone Mountain, and to the fireworks at Lake Lanier and just playing with Nordone's three children. She even lost two teeth on the trip. "She loves to jump on the trampoline and she loves to swim. And she loves to take a bath. She's like the little mermaid in the bathtub . . . If she even gets in the bathroom she immediately starts tearing off her clothes," Nordone said, noting that the orphanage has no bathtubs or hot water.

Seeing Yolanda leave has been emotional, said Nordone. "My children have really been touched by this whole thing. They realize there are a lot of people in the world that do not live the way they do. They collected clothes and toys to give to her . . .They've given up allowance for Mustard Seed," she continued. "It really gave us, my trip as well as their visit, insight on what it takes to really be happy. It's all about love and family and relationships."

Books have started to become a special part of Yolanda's life. She "reads" to Daphne Nordone while LaVonne Markel helps out. Nordone and her family hosted Yolanda and others from the Mustard Seed program in Nicaragua in July while Yolanda recuperated from eye surgery.

Nordone hopes to find parents to adopt Yolanda and some of the other healthier orphanage children, and is considering it herself. "I just really think she's got a lot of potential. I just think she's very adoptable. She's got such a loving personality and she's fun. She can really work the crowd," she said. "We've been trying to reach some (potential) adoptive parents. I've been doing a lot of praying about finding her a family and helping them get some funds for their daily needs down there and then I want to go back on another mission trip and work again down there."

To make a donation send checks payable to Mustard Seed-Nicaragua to P.O. Box 2993, Alpharetta, GA 30023-2993 or for information call Janice Givens at (404) 936-7333. For information on adoption call Nordone at (770) 998-5846.