THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 16, 1994 TAG: 9410140232
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KIRSTEN SORTON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
A newspaper article and a passion for helping others is all Doug and Marty Ross needed to begin their recent trip to Africa.
It started in August when Marty read about Rwandan refugee camps. At the end of the newspaper article, a short paragraph told about Operation Blessing, an outreach ministry associated with Pat Robertson, which was looking for medical volunteers to help at camps in Zaire, Africa. Operation Blessing would pay all expenses for these volunteers.
Both Doug and Marty are medically trained so they volunteered. Marty is a school nurse at Lynnhaven Middle School and Doug, besides being the assistant pastor for the Open Door Chapel, is a physician's assistant for a local family practice.
``I called because this is something I have always wanted to do,'' Marty Ross said. ``I tried to go over and help out with Operation Desert Storm, but I could never get over there so I really wanted to do this.''
The Virginia Beach couple left Sept. 3 and spent two weeks working in the hospital and orphanages near the Kibumba camp on the Zaire and Rwanda border. The group of 13 volunteers saw between 100 to 120 people per day and treated malaria, shigella and other diseases. The Rosses found that the medications and treatment help the refugees, but the human touch was the greatest healer.
``The key to what changes things over there is personal involvement in people's lives,'' Doug Ross said. ``We found that was the most effective thing. If you do something that rehumanizes a person that gives them something they can feel or an attachment, it changes their life. These people have lost everything.''
The refugees have lost their jobs, homes and loved ones. They are Rwandan citizens that belonged to either of the tribal groups, the Hutus or the Tutsis. The tension between the groups led to the war in Rwanda, which killed thousands of people and caused millions to flee for their lives.
Marty Ross asked one young man if he would ever go back.
``He said, `Oh no, we can't because if you have any intelligence or money at all they will kill you, so we can't ever go back.' ''
Doug Ross met a boy who refused to play soccer with the older boys in the camp.
``He just didn't feel safe with the older boys because they were the same age as those who had killed his parents,'' said Doug Ross. ``This happened only a few weeks before, so it left a strong impression on him. He was such a nice little guy, but when you talked about that his whole personality changed.''
Some of the refugees have settled in the seven camps along the Rwanda border in Zaire. In the Kibumba camp, 350,000 people live in wooden tents that house four to six people. The camp covers a small valley 1 mile wide and 2 miles long. There was little food or fresh water.
``These people have nothing,'' said Marty Ross. ``They eat rice and beans, if they have that, otherwise they eat casaba roots, which is nothing.''
After seeing the starvation, disease and hardship, the Rosses felt that the group most effected by the war were the children.
``The kids were the ones who tore your heart out,'' Doug Ross said. Being the parent of two daughters, Doug Ross can feel for these children. ``The kids were the innocent ones. They don't have a political agenda. They can't understand why their parents died.''
Operation Blessing reached out to these orphans by giving them medication and love.
``When someone goes in and actually sits down and says, `Come here,' 12 children just pile all over you and want to be touched and held like any little child would,'' Doug Ross said. ``It makes the whole day different for them.''
The Rosses returned to the United States on Sept. 20. They wished they could have stayed longer, but obligations to their family and jobs brought them home. Both were happy to be home, but want to volunteer again.
``I would go back tomorrow,'' said Marty Ross.
Her husband agrees and is grateful to Operation Blessing and all the other volunteers who gave their time and money to help the Rwandan refugees.
``It was amazing,'' Doug said. ``God puts together an awful lot of wonderful people.'' MEMO: For information about being a medical volunteer for Operation Blessing,
call the medical strike force at 579-3650. Upcoming trips are planned to
Chile, Romania, Colombia and Zaire.
ILLUSTRATION: Photo by KIRSTEN SORTON
Marty Ross, a school nurse at Lynnhaven Middle School, and her
husband, Doug, a pastor and physician's assistant, volunteered for
two weeks as part of Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing in Rwanda.
by CNB