Early Tuesday morning David Singletary drove the Methodist Volunteers in Mission's Eye Team to the Columbia airport. The team landed in Port- au- Prince, Haiti, and boarded a small plane for Jeremie, 125 miles from Port- au- Prince, where it is staffing an eye clinic for the people of the village for about two weeks.

This program is part of a broader mission sponsored by the South Conference of the United Methodist Church in association with the United Methodist Committee on Overseas Relief. It began in 1974 in Haiti, a beautiful country considered the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere comprising an area about 1/3 that of the state of South Carolina.

Last year, during the volunteers' ten days, they had approximately 800 consultations, which consisted of a multitude of ocular problems, including cataracts, glaucoma, and ocular infections. The team performed approximately 30 eye operations during its stay. Volunteers also visited the Methodist Orphanage and the Emanuel Orphanage where they found children with very little food and clothing.

Photo by Jim Covington David Singletary (l) drove the group going to Haiti to the airport. (l- r)Beth Wilkinson, ophthalmic nurse; Dr. Charles Finley, opthalmologist; Cheryl Burgess, ophthalmic nurse; Dr. Hal Crosswell, ophthalmologist; Mary Kathryn Britton, daughter of Kathy Crosswell, and Kathy Crosswell, ophthalmic nurse. The volunteer doctors and nurses contribute their time to this project and all medicine, equipment, and supplies are donated.

Mary Kathryn Britton, a former Hammond student and now a student at New York University is traveling with the volunteers as a photographer. She is the daughter of Kathy Crosswell. Britton is acting as a photojournalist while in Jeremie.

The Columbia Star

will publish her images when she returns.