Background

The buildup towards establishing Mission Saint Faith as a non-profit charitable organization started as a simple desire to give back.  Calling her family back home in Jamaica and hearing about the sudden death of so many, primarily from heart attacks or strokes, it became abundantly clear to Erica that something needed to be done, urgently. As the thought of the lack of adequate health services or educational resources for the underprivileged and underserved resonates throughout rural communities everywhere she was very motivated to try to help.

 

In late 2010, Erica Francis, then a Registered Nurse, started her feasibility study of how she would be able to help those who may not otherwise receive basic health screening and become knowledgeable of their health deficiencies. In taking on this tumultuous task she was able to convince some friends to volunteer to accompany her as a team of like-minded healthcare professionals and non-medical personnel would be the best approach.

 

Erica needed at least one physician who would be willing to team up with her. This proved to be a somewhat more difficult proposition than first thought because of the time constraints generally faced by physicians due to their patient load obligations. While working in the hospital she met Dr. Errol Bryce, MD, a fellow Jamaican. It was a no-brainer! She told him of her plan to bring a team of volunteers both clinical and non-clinical to Jamaica and after much prodding and deliberation, he consented to join her.

 

What started as only a desire was quickly becoming a reality. With one physician on board, putting the rest of the team together was much easier. Having the wholehearted support of her husband and children, Erica reached out to close friends and acquaintances to see if they were interested in supporting a mission trip. Folks were excited at the thought of supporting such a venture and gave lots of personal resources and financial assistance. By July 2011 the first mission trip to Jamaica was in full swing. Dr. Bryce was very invested and provided much-needed financial support. By 2013, Dr. Bryce had gone on all three mission trips.

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Mission Activities and Services

During that first couple of years, there were many hurdles along the way. Fundraising, sponsorship, international communication, and Customs glitches at the airport were some of the many challenges but under Erica’s leadership, the team remained steadfast. Determined to deliver health services and healthy lifestyle education to groups in underserved communities, arrangements were made and executed.

 

The first event was held at the Tacius Golding High School in the Brown’s Hall community of St. Catherine. With a support staff of over 20 persons and dozens of local volunteers, the 5-day health fair became a reality. Hundreds of people received health screenings and medical attention that first year. Not having done this before, was a good time to learn the intricacies of a successful health fair.

 

Some of the early lessons learned included, what advertising method is most effective, understanding the culture, finding the right local contacts and most importantly, what was most meaningful to the people. In the first year, hundreds of dollars were spent on print advertising and banners, but it was not very effective.

 

What turned out to be the best form of advertising for the targeted communities were the roving loudspeakers from a car driving down the street. This form of advertising was not only the most effective but was the least expensive. Never before had anyone brought such a program to those communities.  Everyone was curious and eager to hear that a 5-day health fair, where all the services would be provided free of cost, was coming to their community.

 

In addition to the standard health screenings generally done at health fairs, Mission Saint Faith went further and provided thousands of dollars of free prescription medication for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and GERD. The Mission Saint Faith team provided local community volunteers with medical supplies such as blood pressure monitors and cuffs, blood glucose monitors, and test strips and trained them on how to use them.

 

They would at least continue to help their community folks monitor their blood pressure and blood sugar until the next mission trip. Toothbrushes, sandals, articles of clothing, children's toys and games, bibles, and school supplies were among some of the other supplies provided. Cooking schools were also held by Dr. Cameron, a local naturopathic doctor, and lunch was provided each day for all attendees. Food items such as peas, beans, rice, and oat groats were distributed to all attendees. Seeds for gardening were also distributed after instruction classes were conducted.

 

It is worth mentioning that the first mission trip was intended to be a one-time event. Little did Erica and her team know that this would become a yearly event with no foreseeable end. Before Mission Saint Faith left Jamaica for the first time, the people were already requesting the team to return. As the team evaluated the great need for more help it was clear that this was only the beginning of something much bigger. What was initially planned to be a one-time event has become annual. The second and subsequently the third mission trips benefited from the lessons learned from the first one had fewer hiccups and served much larger groups of people.

 

In year two the health fair was held in the Red Ground and Bullet Tree communities, also in the parish of St. Catherine. The third mission trip returned to Tacius Golding High School in the Brown's Hall communities. The health needs in those communities were very great! The health issues included diabetes, hypertension, cancer, asthma and other respiratory diseases, coronary artery disease, and obesity. These diseases affected all classes of people but more so those who lived in underprivileged and underserved communities because of the lack of vital resources. These diseases generally go untreated for long periods and as a result, heart attacks and sudden death are quite common.

 

In the communities where Mission Saint Faith works the people are always eager and very grateful to get free health screenings, treatments, and education. Educating the people on healthy alternatives to daily living was always well received. They were very happy that somebody cared enough to come to their communities and deliver free health services and education for healthy lifestyle changes.

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During the very first health fair held at the Tacius Golding High School, a mother carrying a boy who seemed to be about ten years old on her hip with his feet dangling caught the attention of Erica. She soon learned that this now paraplegic boy was not born this way but an untreated high fever left him paralyzed from the neck down. Mission Saint Faith continued to care for the boy years after the mission trip. Some of the assistance given to the young boy included diapers, clothes, special food items, and two modified wheelchairs. Thanks to the generosity of the friends of MSF we continue to positively impact lives, year after year after year.

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Over the next two years, 2013 and 2014, several local health fairs were conducted by Mission Saint Faith. Two of which were done at the Eugene McCray Community Center and Highland Hills Community Center, both in Fort Worth, Texas. The services provided included vision screening and eye exams through a partnership with Vision Team 2020, led by Dr. Gayle Daniels. Essilor USA has also partnered with Dr. Daniels and Mission Saint Faith in providing free prescription glasses at one of the local health fairs.

 

Mission Saint Faith and Vision Team 2020, believe good vision is an important step to a better quality of life and an opportunity to become successful in life as depicted by Vision Team 2020 tagline, “Better vision better hope.” With this belief, Vision Team 2020 and Mission Saint Faith went to Jamaica in December 2013 to address the vision care needs of two elementary schools, namely, Brown’s Hall Primary and Friendship Primary, both in St. Catherine. This was a pilot that ran for two days and focused on elementary kids in grades 1, 3, and 6. Kids were screened and measured for free prescription glasses. These prescriptions were brought back to the US where the glasses were prepared and sent back to the schools to be distributed to the kids.

 

With better vision, the expectation is that these kids will experience improved learning and go on to become healthy and productive members of society. The success of this pilot could lead to future programs targeted to similar groups. Dr. Daniels is committed to working with Mission Saint Faith in its future mission endeavors.

 

The Need to Become A 501(c)3 Organization

Participating in mission trips of this magnitude and scope is a huge sacrifice for the team both financially and in giving of their time. To become more visible and more effective in its mission, in 2012 the decision was made to formalize Mission Saint Faith. Hence the journey to eventually become a non-profit 501(c)3 charitable organization had begun. Believing that good health is the first step to improving quality of life, Mission Saint Faith is committed to helping underprivileged communities, both domestically and internationally, live healthy productive lives through research, education, resources, and promoting healthy life choices. This became the mission of Mission Saint Faith with the tagline, “Hope through healthy lifestyle.”

 

Mission Saint Faith is committed to its mission and had intended to aggressively pursue funding sources as soon as it received its 501(c)3 status. The hope was and continues to be that Mission Saint Faith will seek private sponsorship and will receive enough funding to continue providing health screenings, offer free prescription medication, and health education, and promote healthy lifestyle changes to improve the overall quality of life in under-served communities.

 

In addition, the partnership with Vision Team 2020 is to receive funding to expand the elementary vision program. With funding sponsorship, another program that Mission Saint Faith will pursue in the near term is a breakfast feeding program for elementary school kids. This program is intended to provide a healthy start to the day for kids who generally go to school without a healthy breakfast and in a lot of instances, no breakfast at all. Research has shown that kids who have breakfast regularly do better than those without. This program will include selected elementary schools in underserved communities.

 

Mission Saint Faith has started to leave small footprints in communities that it serves both here and abroad but will be able to do so much more as a true not-for-profit organization. As funds become available, another long-term goal is to deploy mobile units to carry health services and education to more remote areas that may not have facilities and amenities to accommodate the work of medical personnel and volunteers. Such services will be provided frequently and will be more effective in meeting the health needs of these underserved and underprivileged places. With sufficient funding, the extent of services Mission Saint Faith will be able to provide is endless and without borders.

 

Fundraising activities to include:

·       personal solicitations

·       accept donations on our website

·       email solicitations

·       foundation grant solicitations

·       real property, or similar donations

·       phone solicitations

·       receive donations from another organization’s website

·       government grant solicitations

·       Other

 

Mission Saint Faith has used mail solicitation so its letterhead could legitimize its mission. Mission Saint Faith also uses email in the same manner. Personal solicitation is one of the primary ways that has worked well for Mission Saint Faith, especially when it appeals to the church where most of its team are members. The Daniel Migael Foundation, Inc.’s Vision Team 2020 has been involved with Mission Saint Faith from its inception. It will continue to solicit its help for any vision project. Becoming a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization Mission Saint Faith intends to seek government grants in the future as it seeks to do more. With a 501(c)3 status, Mission Saint Faith solicits individuals and organizations that will only give to tax-exempt organizations. In return, they will receive a tax-deductible receipt.

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Having the determination to do more, Erica continued her educational pursuit and earned her Nurse Practitioner, NP, degree and after some time she went all the way to earning her doctorate in Nurse Practice, DNP. With the 2019‒2021 COVID-19 pandemic behind us, Dr. Erica Francis and Mission Saint Faith are poised to return to Jamaica in 2024 with a four-location mission trip covering two parishes. It will offer, medical, dental, and vision services in each of these locations. We continue to solicit your financial support as well as personnel as we navigate and continue to serve the people in these underserved communities both locally and internationally.