Kyle and Yvette Bowser Gives Generously to the St. Jude's Hospital [St. Lucia] Campaign

Oct. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- Sometime between midnight on September 8, 2009, and 1:00 am on September 9, 2009, a fire broke out at the St Jude’s Hospital in Vieux Fort, St. Lucia.  This hospital was the second largest hospital on the island and served the rural southern half of St. Lucia.  There were, on average, 31,450 outpatient visits per year at this hospital. With its 110 beds, St. Jude’s admitted approximately 4,800 patients before the fire, recorded around 930 live births, and conducted around 1,025 operative procedures a year.  

To accommodate the needs of patients after the fire, an accident and emergency medical ward was set up at the George Odlum Olympic Stadium, approximately 2 miles from the destroyed St. Jude’s hospital.  Patients were moved to the stadium, which as of today, houses an improvised operating room, emergency room, surgical ward, maternity and neonatal ward, and resuscitation room.  This makeshift hospital stands on grounds that are occupied by herds of cattle.  Barrels filled with water are kept in the bathrooms (where athletes once took showers before a game) to flush toilets because the water pressure in the building is too low.  Newborn babies are given their first bath in a kitchen sink, once used by food vendors in the stadium.

Despite these difficult conditions, patients at St. Jude’s are given the best possible care.  The medical staff and administrators at the hospital are some of the kindest, nurturing people that you can find across the Caribbean.  They report to duty everyday regardless of how grim the atmosphere for they understand the role they play in the lives of the financially stricken. They show up to work and they take care of the sick as though they were in a state-of-the-art facility, and although they are in a stadium, they offer state-of-the-art quality care.

Children of the Caribbean Foundation has launched a campaign to assist the St. Jude's [St. Lucia] Hospital in their efforts to return to the re-built hospital.  Although construction is near completion, in order for the hospital to open and function, items such as beds, linens, incubators, operating lights, cautery machines and grounding pads, iv poles, iv tubings, patient trolleys, and infant resuscitation tables are needed.  

Children of the Caribbean Foundation Trustee - Yvette Bowser, an American born writer and producer, is not only the first African American woman to develop her own prime-time series with the show "Living Single", but, is also, along with her producer husband, Kyle Evans, the first to make a substantial contribution to the Children of the Caribbean Foundation's St. Jude's Hospital [St. Lucia] Campaign. When asked about his family's act of kindness toward the St. Jude's [St. Lucia] Hospital,  Kyle Bowser humbly stated:  "All we are and all we have is determined by our blessings from God and the many sacrificial contributions made by others on our behalf.  We stand on their shoulders and honor them by supporting the needs of others.  So it is with the St. Jude's [St. Lucia] Project.  The need is great and our shoulders are broad, so we proudly lend our support and pray for progress.  We also congratulate Rosie and Julien for their tireless work and care."

With over 20,000 fans of the Children of the Caribbean Foundation on Facebook, the momentum is growing and the scope of work that the Foundation undertakes is also increasing.  This year the Foundation renovated and expanded the Cyril Ross Nursery in Tunapuna Trinidad, W.I., and provided the facility with a new pharmacy retrofitted with modern cabinets and storage.  As is customary for the organization, hundreds of children across the Caribbean were provided with essential school supplies - backpacks filled with notebooks, pens, pencils, crayons, scientific calculators, and dictionaries.  Funding for it's back-to-school initiative was received through the involvement and participation of others at the "Every Child Matters 5K Run/Walk", also sponsored by Yvette and Kyle Bowser.

Through their good deeds, it is evident that Kyle and Yvette Bowser live the teachings of Lao Tzu's philosophy - "Kindness in words create confidence.  Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.  Kindness in giving creates love."