#sociale | Salute e Sviluppo

CURES AND TEACHINGS IN THE OHUAM PENDÉ

The site of most of the projects we have underway is the Ouham – Pendé region: about 400 kilometres from the capital Bangui, it is one of the poorest areas of the already destitute Central African Republic. The political instability of the entire nation, and the resulting violence, makes poverty endemic and basic rights inaccessible.

Our point of reference in the region is the John Paul II Camillian Hospital in Bossemptélé, which has been working with courage and determination for more than 20 years, representing a landmark for the population who can count on adequate care thanks to this hospital.

The SENÌ- Health and Hygienic Concepts for the Bossemptélé Community project, funded by FONDATION ASSISTANCE INTERNATIONALE (FAI), started on 1 January 2021 with the aim of building the necessary infrastructure for the hospital, supplying medicines and sanitary consumables, recruiting health personnel and promoting hygiene and health education for the local population.

Specifically, as far as infrastructure is concerned, the project aims to contribute to the improvement of the hospital by building a new well that can meet the hospital’s entire water needs and by installing new photovoltaic panels that can guarantee a stable supply of electricity. The well has been completed, is functional and can fully fulfil its function. The panels have all been installed and made operational.

The infrastructural result has been achieved, while the result focused on raising the awareness of the local population on health and prevention issues is ongoing with excellent results. The project includes a series of weekly meetings on specific topics such as nutrition, vitamins, tobacco, alcohol, personal hygiene, malaria vaccination and environmental hygiene. Meetings have already started and continue to take place regularly, both within the hospital and in the surrounding rural areas thanks to the mobile clinic team. To date, more than 4000 people have been involved in awareness-raising activities.

Although the end of the project is set for next summer, the many local actors involved – the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education, Association pour les Œuvres Médicales des Eglises en Centrafrique – ASSOMESCA and the Order of the Carmelite Sisters of Bossemptélé, as well as the Camillian delegation in the Central African Republic that runs the John Paul II Hospital in Bossemptélé – will continue to work to ensure that the mission of raising awareness among the local population is ongoing and can produce long-term benefits.
We will keep you updated on the progress of the project and the many good stories coming from the John Paul II Hospital in Bossemptélé.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION IN BOSSEMPTÉLÉ

“Health and Nutrition for the Vulnerable Population of the Sub-Prefecture of Bossemptélé’ has been a project that we have told you about many times, recounting all the milestones that we have gradually achieved. The project, part of the ‘Emergency Initiative to Support the Vulnerable Population in the Central African Republic’, was funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) and started in September 2021.

The interventions were concentrated in Bossemptélé, the town where the John Paul II Hospital – the health hub of the entire region – is located, and in the surrounding 75 km. We are in the Central African Republic, an endemically poor country, where many of the basic services are the preserve of a few, while the majority of the population suffers from precarious and insecure conditions, both health and food. For some years now, moreover, rebel groups have been making the country even more unstable, carrying out violent acts and frightening the already hard-pressed population.

Anche noi di Salute e Sviluppo – nel corso di questo progetto – abbiamo dovuto affrontare questa situazione, che ha rallentato i lavori, rendendoli più difficili e pericolosi. Despite this, we were able to achieve most of the goals we had set ourselves, including the construction of an emergency room for the John Paul II Hospital. Before our intervention, the hospital did not have the possibility to accommodate the most serious patients in a suitable room, now the emergency room has been completed, both in terms of structural construction and equipment. During this year in which construction work proceeded, the hospital was nevertheless able to see more than 9,000 patients, of whom about one third were admitted to receive the right treatment.

Another deficiency we had identified at an early stage concerned the hospital’s ability to guarantee the necessary meals for in-patients: most of those arriving at the facility have a severe state of malnutrition and need to re-establish a proper diet. In the course of this project, we built a kitchen adjacent to the hospital premises, which can offer three meals a day to all patients. Despite the fact that the structural work has only just been completed, a temporary kitchen has been set up since the start of the project, which has managed to provide three full meals a day for more than 1600 patients.

In order to increase the capacity of the John Paul II Hospital to adequately meet the local population’s demand for care, we decided to start a training programme for health personnel. Thanks to this initiative, 38 workers specialised in obstetrics, ophthalmology, laboratory techniques and maintenance of medical equipment were trained.

In order to provide widespread access to care also in the rural areas surrounding Bossemptélé, we rehabilitated, and in some cases built from scratch, the postes de santé located in some villages within the sub-prefecture. Before our arrival, these facilities were unsafe, with severe structural problems and without any furniture or machinery useful for first aid. During the year, we renovated, furnished and equipped the poste de santé of Gbawi (40 km from Bossemptélé), Bodangui, (10 km), and Bombalou (45 km) with sanitary materials, and we built a new poste de santé in the village of Yangoro, 15 km from Bossemptélé. In addition, we have trained more than 30 workers who will ensure an efficient health service by manning these postes de santé. In addition to each of these facilities, a well was also rehabilitated or constructed to provide drinking water, not only to the poste de santé, but also to the entire population of the corresponding village. Thanks to some budget balances, we were able to rehabilitate an additional well in the village of Boyaram. In total, more than 21,000 inhabitants have access to drinking water.

In addition to these villages, there are many others that, not having a poste de santé and being far from Bossemptélé, remain uncovered in terms of health. To solve this problem, we activated and strengthened the mobile clinic service, which – during the course of the project – was able to visit more than 27 villages, providing first aid to the local population. The mobile clinic also started awareness-raising meetings focusing on different health topics, and managed to involve more than a thousand people. In recent months, the climate of instability in the country has worsened: armed rebel groups have targeted large areas, including part of the area where the mobile clinic operates, some of which have been forced to flee. Due to this situation, it was not possible to visit many villages and proceed with all the previously planned activities.

Despite these difficulties, which caused several slowdowns, the project recorded positive results: 14% more of the local population had access to health services, 25% more had access to drinking waterwhile malnutrition dropped from 40 to 38 per cent. The facilities we have built and the activities we have initiated will continue to be a valuable aid for the locals, who will finally have access to adequate health services of a higher standard.

This article was produced within the framework of the project Health and Nutrition for the Vulnerable Population of the Subprefecture of Bossemptélé AID 05/RCA/12049/2021 funded by the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. The Italian Development Cooperation Agency is not responsible for information that is considered erroneous, incomplete, inadequate, defamatory or in any way reprehensible.

MANY ACHIEVEMENTS IN BOSSEMPTÉLÉ

Not many months have passed since we told you about our project Health and Nutrition for the Vulnerable Population of the Sub-Prefecture of Bossemptélé, which is part of the ‘Emergency Initiative in Support of the Vulnerable Population in the Central African Republic’ funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), and whose aim is to improve the living conditions of the population of the Bossemptélé Sub-Prefecture, which is particularly tried by the instability in the country. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

The Central African Republic has never enjoyed such tranquillity as to allow it to grow and prosper; on the contrary, it has had to contend with numerous coups d’état and as many dictators who, acting without scruples, have allowed the exploitation of the country’s resources, without a thought for the increasingly sacrificed population. The situation in recent years has been particularly difficult: rebel groups have clashed several times with state forces, causing violence and deaths, especially among the most vulnerable population.

In this complex context, the John Paul II Hospital played a key role, providing a point of reference for the population of the sub-prefecture. Despite the clashes and violence, the hospital has always continued to operate and provide support.

Our project starts with the John Paul II Hospital with the intention of increasing its capacity to respond adequately to the needs and requirements of the population. Before our intervention, the facility did not have a proper emergency room in which to receive urgent patients. Now the renovation and extension work on the premises is almost complete and by the end of the project – December 2022 – it is also planned to provide the emergency department with all the necessary furniture and machinery.

Another deficiency found within the hospital concerned the nutritional aspect: a triple problem considering that most of the patients are in a serious state of malnutrition upon admission, that food is necessary to ensure a proper course of treatment and rehabilitation, and that most of those who come from the neighbouring villages, once they arrive in the city, do not have the possibility of buying anything at the local market due to the excessively high prices.

For these reasons, it was decided to build a canteen to provide three full meals a day – based on cereals, meat or fish – for the in-patients, who can thus follow a correct diet and sufficient caloric intake to aid their recovery. The canteen service is also offered to relatives from afar who care for patients in severe need. Currently, more than 2250 meals per month are provided.

In order to improve the quality of the hospital’s services, it was necessary to train 38 in-service health workers in specialist disciplines such as obstetrics and ophthalmology. The training courses are already leading to a significant improvement in hospital performance.

One of the most ambitious components of our intervention is the strengthening of the medical centres located in the villages surrounding Bossemptélé, where services are almost non-existent. Thanks to the AICS-funded project, we have rehabilitated – or in some cases built from scratch – several postes de santé, each of which has a well with access to drinking water. The work is almost complete and the population of the villages of Gbawi, Bodangui, Bombalou and Yangoro already has access to basic health services, without having to make the journey to the city of Bossemptélé, unless strictly necessary for the treatment of more complex illnesses.

Not only qualitative reinforcement of the hospital and postes de santé, but also a mobile clinic service that, twice a week, visits the most difficult-to-reach villages, providing treatment and health education with awareness-raising meetings on prevention and first aid.

Thanks to the support of AICS, our work in the Central African Republic has reached new heights that we hope will mark the beginning of a better life for many people living in the sub-prefecture of Bossemptélé.

This article was produced within the framework of the project Health and Nutrition for the Vulnerable Population of the Subprefecture of Bossemptélé AID 05/RCA/12049/2021 funded by the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Italian Development Cooperation Agency. The Italian Development Cooperation Agency is not responsible for information that is considered erroneous, incomplete, inadequate, defamatory or in any way reprehensible.

STONE BY STONE THE FUTURE OF GARANGO IS BEING BUILT

At the end of each article we promise to update you on the progress of our activities, we want to respect the word given and we are really happy to be able to give good news. Today, in fact, we will talk about the project, presented a few months ago, of Realization of a kindergarten in the city of Garango in Burkina Faso: funded by the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI), and started last February 1.

Burkina Faso is one of the poorest areas in the world and in particular the region in which Garango is located has many shortcomings, both from the point of view of health and education. We are talking about a territory where schools are often far away and difficult to reach, where traditional culture still plays a central role in family life and where families do not always want to send their children to school.

Pre-school education is almost completely non-existent: children between the ages of 3 and 5 have no facilities that guarantee adequate training and provide a springboard for their subsequent education.

Salute e Sviluppo wants to respond to this need by giving the possibility to about 100 children to live school, sociality and education. If this is the primary objective, the secondary objective is to succeed in changing the widespread mentality, especially among the older generations, still skeptical about the need to have their children studied. Thanks to an awareness programme, we aim to build a much more conscious and attentive community.

The project, as we anticipated, consists in the construction of the school that will host the children: three classrooms, a canteen and a rest room, in addition to the services and rooms of the administration. Subsequently, the school materials will be provided, the training of the operators who will take care of the children and the constitution of the three classes divided by age.

We should wait until February 2023 to see the project completed and the first classes can begin their journey, but already now the progress that has been made is remarkable: we can see from the photos how the structure of the school building was almost completely completed externally, the fence wall already finished and the other environments under construction.

The project is absolutely sustainable and aims to last a long time, remaining rooted in the territory, thanks to the involvement of all the local people: starting from the Camillian community on site, arriving at the operators and school staff, all made up of people belonging to the territory of the diocese of Tenkodogo.

We hope that by the end everything can proceed as planned and that next February the school will be operational and ready to welcome children from 3 to 5 years in the best way. We are proud of all these stones that, one on top of the other, are contributing to the construction of the place of the childhood of many Burkinabé children.

UKRAINE: TOGETHER TO OVERCOME THE EMERGENCY

Four months have passed since Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border and war broke out. Every day the news of massacres, tragedies and horrors followed one another at a dizzying pace.

Salute e Sviluppo together with the associations CADIS, FONDAZIONE PROSA, MISSION CALCUTTA ONLUS, MADIAN ORIZZONTI and CESMET immediately mobilized to provide help and support to the fleeing Ukrainian population and their Polish neighbors in managing the millions of refugees.

Thanks to your donations we were able to promptly send the funds for the first emergency, starting the project TOGETHER FOR UKRAINE: ASSISTANCE TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN FLEEING THE WAR.

The local Camillians, since the early stages of the conflict, have made every effort to provide as much help as possible to refugees from Ukraine. Commissioned by the Polish government to manage the first reception, they installed infopoints in the central station of Warsaw where trains arrive and in the west station of Warsaw dedicated to buses. At the moment there are about 7 million people who have fled the war crossing the border, most of them are mothers with small and elderly children. Many have stopped in large urban centres, but they do not have enough space to accommodate them all.

In Lomianki Burakow, about 15 kilometers north of the centre of Warsaw, the Camillians made available their religious residence for the reception of about 30 refugees, providing them with medical, psychological and legal support. While in Ursus, about 13 kilometers to the west, a facility used for the shelter of the homeless was equipped for the reception of refugees, at the time 19.

In both centers there are many activities, designed especially for children: snacks for Mother’s Day, concerts and circus performances for the day of the child. In the structure of Lomianki is also planned the establishment of a kindergarten and the recovery of green areas surrounding the structure.

The project that Salute e Sviluppo, together with all the other associations, has decided to carry out is of the duration of three years and provides for the support of all refugees already present in the two structures and the restructuring of the upper floor of the residence of Lomianki – currently unusable – which inside would have another 9 rooms with the possibility of accommodating another 20 people.

With your donations for the emergency in Ukraine, we will continue to support the many refugees who, with the help of the Polish Camillians, try every day to put together the pieces of a normality that has now disappeared.

In this dark moment, you can turn on a light.

Click here https://www.salutesviluppo.org/dona-ora/choose the method of donation and write in the reason HELP UKRAINE.

We thank MISSION CALCUTTA ONLUS AND CADIS for the images used.

THE FUTURE OF SNEHAGRAM

Towards the future of young people at Snehagram Centre Transition programme for independent life is the title of the third phase of the initiative that sees Salute e Sviluppo engaged in India to help HIV-positive children thanks to the contribution of the Catholic Church, which allocates part of the 8xMILLE of the total IRPEF revenue for charitable interventions in favour of the Third World.

HIV continues to be such a serious problem for India that the government, especially in recent years, has been pushing a massive education and prevention campaign. The results of this policy have been remarkable: in most of the territory, the percentage of new infections has dropped considerably. However, the number of HIV-positive children and young people who have been orphaned by this same disease and who risk a life of poverty and segregation still remains high: marginalised because they are considered infected and alone without relatives.

Sneha Charitable Trust (SCT) has been working for many years to welcome, care for and educate HIV-positive orphans, aiming at their full integration into society. Salute e Sviluppo, supported by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana (CEI), assists the centre’s activities through a multi-stage programme, each of which refers to a specific age group. At the moment, the third project is underway, which focuses on young people aged 18 to 24 and aims to get them into work and achieve autonomy/semi-autonomy.

All children accommodated at Snehagram are encouraged to choose their subjects and activities according to their own inclinations. This enhances learning and allows specialisation in a specific field that can be their future employment and source of income. Some decided to specialise in agriculture, others in animal husbandry, others in IT or mechanics. Based on these fields of interest, the centre equipped itself with everything necessary to help the young people acquire effective practical training: fields were created, a greenhouse and a farm were built, seeds, fertilisers and various equipment were bought.

In addition to vocational training, a key part of the project is the construction of housing that will be allocated to each young person according to their chosen field of work and health status. Those who, over the years, have specialised in areas such as mechanics or IT need to be close to the city, as opposed to those who, working in the fields or on the farm, need to stay in their immediate vicinity.

Those who benefit from this project are both the 40 young people who, having grown up at the Snehagram reception centre, have become adults and need to become socially and economically self-sufficient; and the community, which will have a young and specialised workforce that can be employed in several professional sectors.

The stigma of HIV is still very much felt in India, and being able to integrate these young people into the social fabric, thanks to the technical skills they have acquired, means moving them away from the segregation and isolation that a disease like AIDS has as its direct consequences in some parts of the world.

Salute e Sviluppo launched this two-year project in 2018. During the first year, the set objectives were achieved and the deadlines were met. The advent of the pandemic in March 2020 made the smooth continuation of the programme impossible: all Snehagram’s activities were converted to cope with the COVID, which erupted violently in India, affecting most of the centre’s guests, workers and even local Camillians.

It was not until last autumn that all project activities could be resumed. At the end, we at Salute e Sviluppo will be proud to introduce you to the 40 boys from the Snehagram centre, who, thanks to the help of the CEI, can now look forward to a peaceful life fully integrated in their society and community.