Morristown woman makes mission trip to Nicaragua

MORRISTOWN — After nearly 30 years in nursing, Judy L. Bogart, Morristown, has helped a fair number of people in need.

But for Mrs. Bogart, who retired in April from Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center’s Wound Healing Center, Ogdensburg, retirement didn’t mean an end to that service.

“I always wanted to go on a mission,” she said. “I love helping people. I have a special place in my heart for those less fortunate.”

After being put in contact with Sister Debbie A. Blow, executive director of North Country Mission of Hope, Plattsburgh, Mrs. Bogart took a mission trip to Nicaragua, the second-poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere.

Mrs. Bogart, a lay minister in Morristown, joined about 40 other people — high school and college students, retirees and others from various backgrounds — for the organization’s 42nd mission, which ran from July 26 to Aug. 2. They landed in the capital of Managua and traveled about a half-hour to nearby Chiquilistagua.

“It was a very poor area. They didn’t have a lot,” she said.

Stationed for the majority of the week at the Mission of Hope Compound, Mrs. Bogart said, the bulk of her work involved building shelters in neighborhoods and daily food distribution to orphanages, clinics and the Velez Paiz Hospital for children, as well as helping to construct a hospital for lepers.

“The first day, and every day, just amazed me,” Mrs. Bogart said. “Here in the States, we kind of hold parts of ourselves back, but as soon as you meet these people, all that is gone. They are precious moments I will never forget, seeing the look in their eyes, these people who appreciate every little thing you do for them. They know you are sincere.”

Over more than a decade, North Country Mission of Hope has provided more than $50 million in food, equipment and medical supplies to the impoverished area. With an unemployment rate of 62 percent, chronic malnutrition affecting 30 percent of the population and 45 percent living on less than $1 a day, a great deal of assistance remains necessary, according to Sister Debbie.

Mrs. Bogart said she saw the good, the bad and the ugly.

“We lived in a compound and we had guards. And though we never felt threatened, we always traveled in groups,” she said.

Mrs. Bogart said she saw a bit of everything, from dirt roads and torrential rains to families packed 17-deep in tent-like structures and children living in garbage dumps. “But everybody that goes wants to go back,” she said.

As a spiritual humanitarian organization, North Country Mission of Hope has been committed to fostering hope and empowering relationships with the people of Nicaragua through sustainable programs in education, health care, community and ecological development, since its inception in 1998, Sister Debbie said.

The organization was formed in response to the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Mitch on the impoverished villages of Chiquilistagua and Monte Verde. “There were 22,000 deaths,” Sister Debbie said.

Information about North Country Mission of Hope is online at www.ncmissionofhope.org or by contacting Sister Debbie at 1 (518) 570-5443 or dshope2@charter.net.