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About Stop The Tears...
In 1981, Dr Albert Repicci, a dentist from Greenwich, CT. began volunteering on short term medical/ dental missions in the Caribbean. Although he is an orthodontist, the need for pain relief was acute, so most of the services were surgical in nature with tooth extraction being the primary treatment rendered. In those early years, through exposure from the Catholic missionary sisters, it became apparent that a wide variety of additional critical needs demanded attention, from basic nutrition and medical care to shelter, education and social justice.

Over the next twenty-five years, his medical/dental missions around the world became a vehicle to identify these other needs and then to develop projects to address them during the period between missions. Hospital beds and a dental clinic were shipped to Antigua, water wells were installed along the Amazon in Peru. Children's fluoride programs were initiated in Southern Africa, Vietnam, the mountain villages of Nepal, and in war ravaged Rwanda, while livestock farms were developed in The Philippines, and nomadic dwellings were constructed in Mongolia. In Kenya, the inability to deliver vaccines to patients at the frontier has left tens of thousands of children exposed to diseases which, in the presence of compomised health, results in preventable deaths. A protocol has been established for the delivery and administration of thousands of doses of the vaccines to families in these remote areas using the Barsaloi Catholic Dispensary as a base of operations. In addition to the immunizations, nutritional supplements, first aid and hygiene instruction are intrigal to the program all making this project a high priority for Stop The Tears.

The mission to Cambodia, however, revealed a country, not only struggling with depravation, but one that was still reeling from the savage genocide it suffered during the brutal reign of the despot, Pol Pot. With three million Cambodians having been murdered and tortured by the Khmer Rouge regime, the anguish amongst these people was literally palpable. No family was left unscathed.

To add further to their tragedy, Southeast Asia, especially Cambodia and Thailand are notorious for sex trafficking with child prostitution being rampant. Notorious sex traffickers lure families living in desperate circumstance to yield their children into bondage for a token sum that barely relieves the family from their predicament. Equally tragic, these women and children not only are exposed to potentially treatable venereal disease, but many have contracted AIDS resulting in life expectancies that terminate in their teens. Amongst the many other services that can be offered to alleviate human suffering, Stop the Tears Foundation sees this issue as a primary focus.

Identifying these women is both difficult and dangerous given the financial interest of those who hold them in servitude. However, assisting families in achieving basic dignity through nutritional guarantees, a means of self sustenance through farming assistance and livestock or fish stocking, as well as education opportunities for the children, could set the stage for families to resist solicitors. To achieve further economic independence, especially amongst the women who have resisted the lure of the sex trade or who have left and are now suffering with AIDS and living in a hospice, sewing schools are in place to develop the skills to produce a saleable product. Presently, amongst other services, sewing skills have been taught some of the women that they might produce a saleable item for their local markets. Meanwhile, through our fellowship, here in the America, we have arranged for the design and development of selective fashionable products that will bare the Stop The Tears logo and will be available for sale through our web site.

Although you may not be able to personally traipse the dusty roads of the Cambodian back country or traverse their malaria invested jungles, you can still walk hand in hand with the missionaries and relief workers who have placed themselves in harm's way to reflect your heart in an unjust world.

Wayne Mattysee, an American medic now living and serving in an AIDS hospice in Cambodia, shares in his web site www.partnersincompassioncambodia.com, a gripping description of the day to day miseries that afflict those approaching death.

What better gift to mankind than to share and relieve the suffering of our brothers and sisters. Help us Stop the Tears.

To contact us (click here) or to forward a tax deductible contribution, send your correspondence to:
The Stop The Tears Foundations - 141 Milbank Avenue - Greenwich CT, 06830 - (203) 869-3377
IRS Tax Exemption under Section 501(c)(3)