Get a facial and support Haitian refugees
By Angela Greiner Contributing Writer
Region - Westborough resident Cheryl Silverberg, who is also a member of Trinity Church in Northborough, is one of several volunteers from Trinity Church traveling to La Romana, in the Dominican Republic, in February 2008 for the church's annual mission trip. The goal of the mission is to support the efforts of the Haitian Methodist Baptist Church and the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation in providing medical, construction and education assistance to the Haitian refugees living in La Romana.

While Santa collected children's wishes at the Trinity Church Craft Fair Dec.1, Cheryl Silverberg sold facials to support refugee relief efforts. PHOTO/ANGELA GREINER

With the trip a couple of months away, Silverberg has begun volunteering her time collecting medical supplies to take along, and giving facials to raise money for the trip. The money from the facials she gives will be used to both defray the cost of the trip and to purchase various medical and clothing supplies to take to the Haitian refugees.

For $50, all of which is donated to the trip, Silverberg, a licensed esthetician, will provide a facial to any adult - men and women - in the community. This gives area residents an opportunity either before or after the holidays to enjoy a beauty treatment while also giving financial support to people in need. Silverberg will be available to give facials through February; those looking for a great gift idea for the holidays can give a facial to a friend and also know that they're helping refugees.

Silverberg, who has never left the country, is looking forward to the trip.

"I have always wanted to go on a mission trip," she said.

Silverberg explained that she and the other church volunteers are also collecting as many medicals supplies as possible.

Northborough resident Karen Gallagher, a church member who attended the last mission trip, said she is still horrified with the level of poverty she witnessed visiting the villages in the Dominican Republic where Haitian refugees working on the sugar plantations live.

"It is third-world poverty," Gallagher said. "The air was thick with the smell of molasses from the burning sugar cane; the people lived in corrugated metal shacks; children and adults were without shoes. [There was] no running water, no fresh water and no sanitation facilities."

The main goal of the annual mission is to provide medical attention and construction assistance building schools, community buildings and a hospital. Gallagher, who is not a medical professional, worked in the village in a medical clinic that consisted of a cinderblock structure and dirt floors.

There, Gallagher worked with a team of medical professionals from UMass Medical School.

"I sat all day taking the blood pressure of men, women and children who visited the clinic," she said. "The children coming into the clinic were covered with scars from skin diseases like ringworm and scabies, although the primary medical issues were parasites and malnutrition."

In the adults, a high number of patients were treated for high blood pressure and AIDS.

The medical and humanitarian relief effort is part of a 20-year campaign by Christian faith organizations like the American Baptists and the United Church of Christ.

Needed medical supplies include children's and adult ibuprofen, Tylenol, cough syrup, antacids, vitamins, antibiotics, Selsun Blue shampoo and steroid creams.

For a complete list of medicines, to book a facial, or to make a financial contribution, contact Cheryl Silverberg at 978-602-4686 or by e-mail at CSilverbug@yahoo. com or call Karen Gallagher at 508-393-0972.