Making History Together!

Site Preparation Underway in Ouesso, Congo

We have fantastic news to share – the site for the future Ouesso hospital has been cleared and a temporary access road has been built!  In the photo you will see that the site in the jungle was previously covered in vegetation and has now been cleared in preparation for construction! It gives us tremendous joy to see this first step as many exciting “firsts” of the New Sight Ouesso Project to come!

As we continue to raise funds to fill the gap, we praise God that with your amazing support, we have raised enough money to start construction! We will soon be awarding tender to a construction company and the foundations will be laid! To see our Ouesso Eye Hospital Project to the finishing line, please give generously at newsightcongo.com/donate.

Your continued support is much needed and valued.

Containers and Equipment Bound for Congo

We can’t believe that our containers are still being filled! With the enthusiastic support of the Association of Private Eye Surgeons (APES), ophthalmologists, medical suppliers and others, we are blessed with donations of much-needed equipment to pack and send to Congo. For our first freight shipment, the Baptist Hospital MEMU (Medical Equipment Maintenance Unit) team has donated their time and skills to test the second-hand equipment beforehand in the warehouse. We are so grateful to our pro-bono partners APES, Columbia Office Removal Company, and Baptist Hospital for making this all possible!

Joyce’s TEDx Talk Online Now!

Despite feeling like her knees would buckle when she got on the TEDx stage, our very own Dr. Joyce Samoutou-Wong delivered a powerful, heartfelt and applicable talk titled “How children can lead social impact” in Hong Kong in November 2018. Drawing from her own experience of failing to see others’ needs and seeing her own children’s empathy and creativity in action, Joyce moved the audience and challenged many others who watched online. You can see this wonderful speech online now on newsightcongo.com/tedx.

Doggies for Sight Calendar Sale Exceeded All Expectations

Birthed out of Ezra and Karis’ empathy and creativity, Doggies for Sight Calendars have incredibly raised more than $270,000! All of the New Sight Team are so overwhelmed and surprised by this outpouring of love and care, especially from children, students, adults, who selflessly responded to the needs of our patients and families in Congo. We are so excited to think of what more we can do together! This is just the beginning for Project Two Front Teeth, please continue to work your clever brains and think about “What’s your two front teeth?” newsightcongo.com/twofrontteeth

Birthday Campaigns Kicked Off

March is Joyce’s birthday month, and the New Sight team invites you to turn your well wishes and presents into donations to her favourite charity: New Sight! For you who know her well, her heart really beats for New Sight to grow and help even more people. Make Joyce’s birthday her best one yet: newsightcongo.com/joyce-birthday Thank you for your generosity and love for our irreplaceable, fantastic Joyce!

We already had 2 supporters turning their birthdays into donation campaigns for New Sight, and we’re so grateful for them and their friends showing their love and support in this way. If you are interested in doing the same for your birthday this year, please get in touch with us!

Email: itadmin@newsightcongo.com

New Sight in the News

Joyce has been busy being interviewed in the last months before returning to Congo! In September 2018, she spoke with Karen Keith in an in-depth tv interview on Macau TDM talk show:

newsightcongo.com/macau-tdm-talk-show

On 19 December 2018, she sat down with Noreen Mir on RTHK Radio 3 and talked about her unusual calling, and Project Two Front Teeth.

newsightcongo.com/radio3interview

In sharing with the wider community in Hong Kong and Macau, we hope the cause of our patients and friends in Congo can be shared and supported! Please tune in and enjoy these fun talks and share with your friends.

Sending Party and Family Fun Day

The December party was such a beautiful day celebrating what we have been able to do together as a New Sight family and community, and a wonderful send-off the Samoutous! We had games, crafts, model car racing, music performances, magic show, balloon modelling, bake sale, photo booth, and even impromptu football games!

So many of you gave your precious time, effort, resources to make this happen and we can’t thank you enough! We’re thinking of you, Alliance International Church – Pastors Stan and Mary Ann Tyson, Joel and Becca Arndt – and Dorie Manalili and ladies, Kowloon Tong Alliance Church and Awana Club, Danny and Awana Club Whampoa, Alliance Primary School – Whampoa, Po Cheung’s Union Church small group – Elza, David, Patrick and Mariam, Ying Wah Girls’ School, Diocesan Girls’ Junior School, Little Pianists, Wingo the Magician, Vincent and Agnes, Megan, Vean, all the volunteers, bakers and helpers, and the New Sight Executive Committee!

The happy faces of everyone and especially the children who didn’t want to leave (or begged for a Family Fun Day every year!) were evidence it was a great success and an amazing memory for the Samoutous – it will sustain and encourage them as they face the challenges in Congo.

From Hong Kong and UK to the Congo!

So, what has the Samoutou family been up to since leaving Hong Kong? They have been busy in the UK, where New Sight Eye Care was first born, working with the UK team to equip and train a brand-new frontline team for Congo! In addition to the Targett family introduced in our last newsletter, over the next 6 months, we have 6 more expatriate adults and 1 child joining us in Ouesso to serve the community! We are so thankful for their brave and willing hearts and hands to sacrifice and serve! Ladies and gentlemen, we have a team with us in Congo! And we have teams supporting us worldwide! What an amazing answer to prayer!

Henri has safely arrived in the Republic of Congo to start the long and challenging process of preparing the resources, accommodation, and the room in the government hospital to be New Sight’s temporary clinic. He can’t wait to be joined by his family and the Targett family this month. After months of preparation and contribution from too many people to count, the Ouesso Project is truly becoming a reality!  The local community is rejoicing with us as well!