[US] Woman devoted to fighting poverty

from The News Press

Faith inspires Cape woman to reach out to poor in India

By Karen Feldman

Mary Beth Sandy's concept of a happy retirement likely diverges from that of most of her peers.

No golf or Red Hat Society lunches for this 62-year-old Cape Coral woman who raised four sons and worked for many years at the Ruth Cooper Center.

But, in 2002, a mission trip to India with her church, Grace United Methodist in Cape Coral, ignited a passion within her to step out of her comfortable suburban existence.

Way, way out.

Sandy's faith has inspired her to devote herself to helping India's poorest and most vulnerable residents battle poverty and disease, especially HIV/AIDS.

In the past year, she's made two extended missions to Hyderabad, India, the country's fifth largest city with a population of more than 6 million.

There she conducts classes about HIV/AIDS — how it spreads, prevention methods and how to care for those already infected.

She spends hours at orphanages with children whose parents have died from AIDS.

She ventures out to remote villages where she helps conduct medical clinics, providing basic medications for ailments such as fungal infections, indigestion, colds and earaches.

She helps with ministries that teach widows how to make a living from sewing or other crafts they already know, turning them away from prostitution, the only way most Indian women who have lost their husbands can earn money to feed their children.

Sitting in the cool, quiet confines of her Cape Coral living room this week, Sandy's eyes shine as she talks about her experiences in this far-flung land.

She, physician Bill Bess and his wife, Becky, of Fort Myers, head back to the region in September for what they hope will be a two-month stay.

Their plan is to get a medical van built and equipped. They would then find Indian medical staff — a doctor, a dentist and perhaps an ophthalmologist to take it to outlying villages to treat residents who would otherwise get no care.

"We know what needs to be done and where it is and the people in the villages know who we are and why we're there," she said.

That's the first step in what they know will be a long process.

The van will cost about $80,000 to have an Indian company build and equip.

Meanwhile, they will continue to minister to the many people in and out of the city who need help.

Although there are many social problems, HIV/AIDS is the missionaries' major concern.

The National AIDS Control Organization in India estimates that 5 million people in that country are infected with HIV or AIDS. That's second only to South Africa.

The United Nations Population Division predicts that between 2000 and 2015, some 12.3 million people in India will die from AIDS. From 2015 to 2050, another 49.5 million are expected to perish from the disease.

"In many villages, they don't know what it is and they don't know how it's spread," said Sandy. "Some people say that when new numbers come out on the number of AIDS cases in India, it will make Africa look like a cake walk."

Despite such astronomical numbers, Sandy continues to battle against the tide, expressing her faith by ministering to those in need. There's no shortage of need in Hyderabad.

The trick is to find ways to solve those problems inexpensively with the resources at hand.

For example, many people suffer from heartburn and indigestion, a result of the spicy foods in the Indian diet. While Western antacids would surely work, the missionaries "look for ways to utilize the things poor people have access to," she said.

Sandy figured out that ginger root tea would soothe the burn.

"It's readily available," she said.

Through medical clinics, they discovered that many people had goiters, large swellings of the thyroid gland caused by a lack of iodine in the diet.

Sandy went out and bought a load of iodized salt, which she then distributed to 30 pastors who took it back to the villages and instructed the women to cook with it.

Now Sandy's focused on finding a way to help AIDS-infected mothers feed their babies.

"You see mothers in the hospitals who are told they can't nurse," Sandy said. "It's the only food most have."

Formula has to be mixed with water, and clean water is tough to find there.

Sandy's solution: water buffalo.

"Water buffalo give more milk than cows and they eat anything," she said.

A water buffalo costs $300, but there are no other expenses after that. She's hoping to start buying some of the animals on her next trip to give to various villages.

Grace United Methodist Pastor Jorge Acevedo said his congregation has ongoing missionary projects in a number of countries besides India, including Paraguay, Ghana, Honduras and Costa Rica.

Some people go for months, some for a week or two.

"Not everybody has the calling" to go abroad as a missionary, he said.

Nonetheless, the whole congregation gets involved.

"The greatest gift we give is prayer," he said. "We pray for all of our ministries every month."

A second way is through monetary donations. Last year, the congregation donated some $300,000 to support missionaries and special projects.

They used $80,000 to bring six families to the area from the devastated Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. They gave $40,000 to tsunami relief earlier in the year.

The seemingly insurmountable problems might discourage many people, but Sandy believes she gets as much as she gives.

"We feel so good when we're there," she said. "They are people with nothing but the most incredible amount of joy" in spite of it all.

"We've worked so hard," she said, "and so many things are beginning to take shape."

TO HELP OUT
Mary Beth Sandy will return to India in September. Among the items she would like to take back with her are:
• Basic plastic baby bottles
• Head lice treatments
• Antibiotic and/or fungal ointments
• Toothbrushes and toothpaste
• Anti-itch creams
Donations can be made at Grace United Methodist Church of Cape Coral, 13 SE 21st Place, Cape Coral. Call 574-7161.