Mission Stories
Empowering Women Through Care and Craft
Meet Odalis:
We’re excited to introduce Odalis, a dedicated young mother from El Mamey, a rural batey outside of Guerra. For over 10 years, Odalis has been a passionate volunteer with Sister Parish Ministry—serving her community with heart and purpose.
Most recently, Odalis has taken on a critical role:
She’s actively supporting prenatal care for 30 young women in her community—many of whom have little or no access to regular medical care. This included access to ultrasounds, prenatal vitamins and other valuable resources.
Together with her mother, Odalis also leads Monique’s Threads—a women's empowerment initiative that teaches sewing skills and offers income opportunities through handcrafted goods.
What began as a modest embroidery project has grown into a transformative enterprise. Today, it provides women with the training, tools, and support they need to build dignified livelihoods and celebrate their cultural heritage through their art.
We are deeply grateful to everyone who has already contributed.
Thanks to your generosity, we’ve raised $41,000 of our $75,000 goal.
Your support today can help us:
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Expand prenatal care outreach for these young women
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Provide sewing machines and materials for Monique’s Threads
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Empower more women like Odalis to lead and serve
Please consider making a donation—and don’t forget to check for Corporate Matching opportunities!
Thank you for walking this journey with us. Your prayers, support, and love make this mission possible. Please share this one friend who you think might be interested in supporting the many initiatives of Sister Parish Ministry!
Support the Smiles of Futuro Vivo
A Dental Health Initiative:
Dear Friends and Supporters:
I wanted to share another area of interest for Sister Parish Ministry, Inc. (SPM). Ten years ago, Elizabeth Beverly, niece of Dr. Laura Beverly, our Pediatric physician, had an idea that would have a tremendous impact on the health care of the children in two communities that we serve. She realized that there was a significant need for improved oral care for these children. Based on Elizabeth’s idea, since 2015, the Medical Mission Team of SPM has partnered with Futuro Vivo School in Guerra, and with local volunteers in El Mamey, a batey outside of Guerra, to provide ongoing dental care and education for thousands of children. Our mission is simple yet vital: to improve oral health and instill lifelong habits that protect children from preventable pain and disease.
Three times a year, during our scheduled Medical Missions, our volunteers visit Futuro Vivo School to administer fluoride treatments and provide each student (765 students) with a new toothbrush, toothpaste, a toothbrush cover, and personalized oral hygiene instruction. These visits have helped reduce the prevalence of cavities and have empowered children, families, and teachers with essential dental knowledge. In El Mamey, we provide fluoride treatments, toothbrushes, toothpaste and toothbrush covers for over 100 children each mission.
This past year marked an important expansion of our work. With the generous help of Dr. Bill Maroney and Dr. Anna Rivera, dental screenings were performed for over 100 children at Futuro Vivo School. These exams revealed urgent oral health needs, including cavities, infections, and other serious dental issues.
Thanks to our collaboration with the UNIBE Dental School, located in Santo Domingo, we have been able to respond in a meaningful way. Dental students and faculty volunteered their time and expertise to provide extractions, fillings, root canals, and other essential treatments at a very reasonable cost—a truly life-changing intervention for many of these children.
Juan Carlos "Carlitos" Journey
A Living Testament to Love, Healing, and Hope:
Juan Carlos "Carlitos" Desir became part of the SPM Family in 2017, when his teachers, having heard about our Medical Mission, traveled with him to us from his small rural school. They were concerned about his inability to stay awake in class. Our Pediatrician, Laura Beverly, diagnosed him with sleep apnea due to a severe jaw malformation. Sr. Eva and Sr. Ines, of Futuro Vivo School, quickly became involved and worked endlessly to obtain a passport and medical visa for him, which was finally granted in January, 2020. Carlitos traveled with his mother to Jacksonville with the Medical Mission team in January of 2020 as a very frail 13-year-old, malnourished and frightened, but hopeful. Dr. Barry Steinberg performed a 12-hour surgery to release and rebuild his fused jaw, allowing him to open his mouth and chew food for the first time in 11 years. The process was grueling, involving two complicated surgeries, two hospitalizations totaling a one-month stay at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, much of it in the PICU, a tracheotomy for 4 months, and multiple delays due to COVID impacts. Wolfson Children’s Hospital and University of Florida –Jacksonville, Nemours Children’s Clinic, and Dr. Fishman provided all of Carlitos' medical and dental care free of charge. After 8 months, he returned home to the Dominican Republic, twenty pounds heavier and using that newfound ability to open his mouth to speak some newly learned English.
His journey has included:
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Involvement in every SPM Medical mission since 2017, both as a patient and now as a volunteer.
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SPM , OLSS members and local friends provided housing, meals, medical care, playdates, transportation, field trips and tutoring, sharing their love with each gesture. He even learned to swim and ride a bike! It was the first time he had felt secure, truly loved and adequately fed.
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SPM built a home for his parents and 4 siblings. For the first time in is life he had a true bed and secure roof over his head. He was sleeping on a dirt floor prior to his surgery.
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Education at Futuro Vivo School. The nuns at his school made an exception and accepted him as a new student, despite many obstacles. The transition was tough. He was academically very far behind and struggling emotionally from years of harsh treatment and bullying due to his facial deformity. However, with the loving and stern guidance of his teachers, nuns, psychologists, and surrogate parenting by Daniel Jose, our valued worker in Guerra, and others from afar in Ponte Vedra, he has worked hard and will be the first in his family to graduate from high school in 2026! He gets himself up and off to school by 6:30 every morning, travelling 3 miles down a very rutted dirt road to catch the school bus, which has extended its route just to pick him up. He has the same journey home each evening. He washes his school clothes each Sunday and prepares all of his own meals. Education and maturing into a good man has become his priority.
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Carlitos asked to be baptized into the Catholic Church. He was prepared for the sacrament by Jesus De La Cruz, a Seminarian and a long term volunteer with SPM, soon to be ordained as a priest. Jesus worked with him and Carlitos was Baptized and is now taking Catechism classes, hoping to receive further sacraments within the year. His Godparents are Laura Beverly and Rolf Engmann, with whom he formed close bonds through SPM. They continue to encourage his religious growth. The highlight of his 2025 summer is Tuesday afternoon counseling followed by Catechism class…rather impressive for an 18 year old!
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Carlitos was born in the Dominican Republic, as the child of Haitians, meaning he is officially a Haitian, as the Dominican Republic does not grant birth right citizenship. He is now 18 years old and struggles with the same plight as many of our Sister Parish Friends. As a Haitian, he must have a Residency Card to officially live and work in the Dom Rep, further his education at university, etc. He has just received word that after over one year of multiple applications, he has been approved for such a card. Again, it was only with the great collaboration of SPM that this was accomplished. Without this he is at great risk of deportation to Haiti. With this card, he will hopefully be able to obtain a passport and Visa and return to Jacksonville for further surgery. Most importantly, he can live without fear and will be able to get an after school and part time job and continue to further his education or pursue a trade.
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Carlitos is from an extremely poor family, which provides him minimal to no support. He relies on SPM friends for emotional, physical and financial support. He finds inspiration and hope from the fact that he there are adults that truly care for him, something we all need!
Carlitos’s journey truly embodies SPM’s goals and mission: With great collaboration provided by SPM he has received medical care, emotional love and support, nutrition, education, conversion to Catholicism, hope that he will not be deported to Haiti, a family home and great friendships. His burdens are still great and he has daily struggles that are beyond the scope of our imagination, but he has developed a true love of Christ and desire to give back, exemplified by volunteering with the July 2025 Family Mission and on medical missions.
He will continue to receive our support as he continues to grow and navigate his challenges. He is surrounded by violence and needs our continued guidance and love to focus on the love of Christ. So many of our Dominican friends face similar challenges and we hope that you are moved to help us continue to help as many of them as possible. If you would like more information on serving with SPM, whether at home or on a Mission trip, please contact …… If you are able to financially help us sustain the many projects that help Carlitos and so many others, please donate.