#childhood | Salute e Sviluppo

STOP CHOLERA IN HAITI

It has been a few months since we told you about ‘Project Cholera’, which started in January and has just ended with excellent results. Haiti is sadly known for the earthquake that struck it in 2010, killing more than 200,000 people. The consequences of the earthquake were very serious: in addition to the many dead and injured, most of the country’s houses and infrastructure were destroyed. Millions of displaced persons were forced to assemble in relief camps, living in temporary dwellings, lacking basic services. This precarious state triggered a violent cholera epidemic, which soon spread throughout the island.

Even today, 13 years later, the situation is still dramatic: political instability does not allow the island to break the stalemate that began in 2010, the population continues to live in poverty in unhygienic shantytowns, which encourage the spread of disease.

For years, Madian Orizzonti Onlus has been working alongside the local population to promote health projects, such as building a hospital and fighting disease. Salute e Sviluppo decided to intervene alongside Madian Orizzonti Onlus for the ‘Cholera’ project, helping the Hopital Foyer Saint Camill in Port-au-Prince, run by the Camillian community, to combat the spread of cholera.

The project’s objectives were: treatment of the sick, preventive visits to the most vulnerable population, and awareness-raising, as many meetings were organised in schools and community focal points to teach how to avoid and prevent infection.

The results we have achieved are amazing, also thanks to our contribution, more than 3000 people were visited at home, 3500 families and 4300 children under 5 years old, and more than 27 thousand were involved in awareness-raising activities.

We are very happy to have been able to contribute to this project and to be close to the Haitian people, helping those who are in the greatest difficulty to regain hope.

SENÌ PROJECT: ANOTHER MILESTONE SURPASSED

We often talk to you about the Central African Republic, one of the poorest countries in the world, and about our projects, most of which focus on improving the capacity of the John Paul II Hospital in Bossemptélé, the main health centre in the Ouham – Pendé region. For more than 20 years, this centre has operated with courage and determination, representing – for the local population – the only possibility of access to adequate medical care.

On 30 June, the project “SENÌ- Health and Hygiene for Bossemptélé Communities“financed by FONDATION ASSISTANCE INTERNATIONALE (FAI) with the aim of building the new infrastructure needed for the hospital, supplying medicines and medical consumables, recruiting health personnel and promoting basic hygiene and health education among the local population.

Thanks to this project, we were able to improve the hospital by building a well, adequate to meet the entire water needs of the health centre, and installing photovoltaic panels to ensure a stable supply of electricity. Now that the activities have been concluded, both the well and the panels are fully operational.

In these 30 months, we have also provided the hospital with the medicines and medical supplies it needed to guarantee care for all patients and awareness-raising – pivot of the project – gave excellent results with more than 5000 people who attended weekly meetings focusing on specific topics such as nutrition, vitamins, tobacco, alcohol, personal hygiene, vaccinations and environmental hygiene. Thanks to the mobile clinic team, neighbouring villages were also visited on a regular basis and were able to attend these meetings.

The last objective included in the project was the training of new health personnel for both the John Paul II in Bossemptélé and the health centres in the north of the country. The young people’s interest in this type of training has gradually grown: while in the first year 11 people took part in the training courses, the following year there were more than 30, 25 of whom passed the entrance test to become an assistant de santé.

We at Salute e Sviluppo are very happy to be able to update you on the success of this intervention, and we trust that the many other actors who have been involved, such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education, Association pour les Œuvres Médicales des Eglises en Centrafrique – ASSOMESCA and the Order of Carmelite Sisters of Bossemptélé, as well as the Camillian delegation in the Central African Republic, which runs the John Paul II hospital in Bossemptélé – will work to ensure that the mission of awareness-raising does not end with this project, but can continue to be carried out, producing long-term benefits for all those in the most difficult circumstances.

JUVENANT SAINT CAMILLE IS ONLINE

It has not been many months since we told you about the project ‘Construction of a well, installation of a drinking water pumping system and installation of a computer room with 24 computers’ at the Juvenant Saint Camille institute in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, now that the project has come to an end, we are pleased to update you on the milestones we have achieved.

The Juvenant Saint Camille is a school centre that gives many children in the capital of Burkina Faso – Ouagadougou – and in many neighbouring areas, the opportunity to have access to a comprehensive education, in a serene environment, despite the many shortcomings and difficulties of the country itself.

By the end of last year, the need for the facility to proceed with further modernisation had become apparent. In particular, the need for a well and a pumping system capable of providing enough drinking water for the needs of the children and the school was emphasised, and it also seemed essential to proceed with the installation of a computer room.

We at Health and Development were very happy to be able to contribute and from 1 November 2022 we decided to start work. Now the well has been completed and is functioning regularly, providing the school with drinking water, and the computer room has been equipped with no less than 24 computers and a projector.

The computer room was strongly desired by the school to give the children access to an almost infinite amount of knowledge, do in-depth research on school topics and develop manual dexterity and skills with technology, a fundamental component of our lives today.

Now that everything is complete, we are happy to have achieved our goals and renew our willingness to support and back all those projects designed to improve the living conditions of those in need in developing countries. We wish all Juvenant students good use of their new tools, improving and learning more and more.

ALONGSIDE THE DAIVALAYAM- ST. CAMILLUS ASHRAM

We have recently started the ‘Project for the structural needs of Daivalayam – St. Camillus Ashram, Hyderabad’: we are still in India and, again in synergy with the Camillian Province and the Sneha Charitable Trust, we have decided to contribute to the realisation of all the structural improvements necessary for this medical centre.

The Daivalayam – St. Camillus Ashram is the only health centre of excellence in the entire Hyderabad region, dedicated to children from 3 to 18 years of age with physical and mental disabilities who need special care and help. Daivalayam means ‘Dwelling Place of God’, a name chosen to emphasise care and respect for these little patients.

Over the years, the centre has been able to accommodate up to 30 children and young people, but now the need has arisen to expand the facility to also accommodate those who, after the age of 18, continue to need care and assistance. The project includes the construction of several more rooms for both patients and the specialised medical staff who constantly follow the children on their rehabilitation journey.

In order to further expand the capacity of the centre, road connections need to be improved: Daivalayam is located in an area that is quite difficult to reach with few roads connecting it to neighbouring towns and, in the rainy season, these roads flood and are difficult to navigate. The project aims to improve the existing connections and to create a drainage system that allows water to drain efficiently from the roads.

Many of the guests at the centre have severe disabilities so they are forced to use wheelchairs, but the outside of the facility is not built to suit their needs. The project also aims to resurface the outdoor paving, so that all patients can spend days outside in complete safety, even with a wheelchair.

In order to safeguard the health of the patients in every respect, Daivalayam also wants to make the land around the facility cultivable, so that the guests can be offered the genuine and healthy products of the earth grown on site.

We at Health and Development are very happy to be able to contribute to the realisation of all these works, which over the next six months will be completed and will make the lives of the children and young people at the centre a little easier and more peaceful.

SCHOOL SUPPORT FOR YOUNG PEOPLE IN OUAGADOUGOU

Burkina Faso is a very poor country where living conditions are even more precarious following the escalation of violence and attacks since 2014. In this context, the Camillians who daily try to intervene to improve the living conditions of the Burkinabé are many, including Fr Jean Paul Ouedraogo.

P. Jean Paul decided in 2006 to start a project for orphaned and vulnerable children in Ouagadougou and their mothers, which included one summer camp per year until 2013. From the following year, when the unrest in the country worsened, he decided to organise one meeting a month of sharing, play and dialogue. These occasions highlighted the urgent need these children had for help and support in their educational, human and professional development.

Thus, the Notre Dame de la Plenitude Association was born, with the specific aim of giving orphaned and vulnerable children the opportunity to resume and continue their education, from kindergarten to university or vocational school, providing them with the foundations to embark on a path of autonomy and self-determination.

We at Health and Development have decided to intervene in support of the Association’s activities: the project ‘School support for 20 orphaned children’ started in March this year and will last six months, in which Health and Development will undertake to financially support the education of 20 children – aged between 6 and 20 – who will be able to continue attending school and finish the school cycle they started.

We are very happy to be able to help these young people in need to continue their education and improvement. We will keep you updated on all developments and milestones that we – together with the Notre Dame de la Plenitude Association – manage to achieve.

MORE GREEN ENERGY IN GEORGIA

Georgia only gained independence some 30 years ago following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which for the entire previous century had subjugated it and made it a highly statist country dependent on Moscow. Since 1991, Georgia has been trying, with difficulty, to get out of the precariousness that the communist system and then its collapse caused, with a large part of the population still living in situations of severe socio-economic hardship.

Following the nation’s independence, the Camillians decided to set up a delegation in the country to help all those in need of socio-medical support: initially with home visits and later with the construction of a real specialist outpatient clinic in Tbilisi, to which – in 2001 – they also added the Day Care and Rehabilitation Centre, already dear to us having joined our AMOC Fund (Camillian Works Sickness Insurance).

In just over 20 years since its inception, the Day Care Centre has managed to become a health centre of excellence, not only for the population of Tbilisi, but for the entire nation. Specialised care and rehabilitation cycles help those with severe disabilities – not only physical – to embark on courses of treatment, followed by medical and health personnel specialised in physiotherapy, speech therapy and psychology.

If it is already one of the most advanced facilities in the entire country from a sanitary point of view, it now also wants to become a pioneer in the field of eco-sustainability: the ‘Solar energy for a GREEN mission!’ project involves the construction of a carport within the car park area and the installation of no less than 90 solar panels of about 300 watts each, with the associated energy production and storage system.

We at Salute e Sviluppo have accepted the project’s application for funding and have just inaugurated the activities that, within seven months, will lead to the installation of the required solar panels and the full operation of the green plant. The Centre will be able to produce much of the electricity it needs in an autonomous and eco-sustainable manner: a clear advantage not only from an economic point of view, but also with a view to safeguarding our planet, as Pope Francis invites us to do in his encyclical Laudato Si’.

We are very happy to be able to participate in this project, which sees us at the forefront, not only in supporting an excellent health centre, but also in promoting the green culture of sustainability.

Tag Archives: #childhood