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IN HUANCAVELICA IN SUPPORT OF THE ELDERLY

Thanks to the Asociación Corazones & Manos Solidarias San Francisco, we have the opportunity to be – once again – close to the Peruvian population in need. We have already told you how thanks to them we were able to help children in Lima hospitals suffering from congenital hyperinsulinism (HC), a very rare endocrine disease, to receive the right life-saving drug – Diazoxide.

Very recently, we started another project, again in synergy with the Asociación Corazones & Manos Solidarias San Francisco, ‘Polyclinic equipped for Huancavelica – in favour of the less affluent in the third age’. Huancavelica is one of the poorest regions in the whole of Peru, in particular the outpatient clinic is located near the district of Caja Espiritu, in the city of Acobamba. In this specific area live nine communities in extreme difficulty, especially the elderly who need urgent help: very often their children emigrate to the big cities to find work and they are left alone in poverty.

The Asociación Corazones & Manos Solidaria has decided to take action to improve the living conditions of these elderly people: in six months, medicines, nutritional supplements, hygiene items and everything necessary to make the outpatient clinic more functional will be purchased. All this will be provided at a symbolic price to the 120 severely distressed elderly in these communities. The symbolic price is necessary to make the project sustainable and continuous over time: the money raised will be used to buy back all the material once it is finished.

Not only medical and food equipment, but also numerous activities are planned: support groups, prevention meetings, spiritual reinforcement, all necessary to support the elderly in their loneliness, creating a network of solidarity and support. In addition, numerous garments have already been provided to those who – in greater difficulty – do not have the possibility of buying their own.

We are very happy to be able to participate in the project, supporting the local community. We will keep you updated on all news!

SOLAR PANELS AT THE INSTITUTE SUPÉRIEUR PRIVÉ DE SANTÉ SAINT CAMILLE IN OUAGADOUGOU

A few months ago, during a mission in Burkina Faso, we had the pleasure of attending a ceremony at the Institut Supérieur Privé de Santé Saint Camille de Lellis in Ouagadougou, in the presence of the Burkinabé Minister of Health and other high state and city officials. On the occasion of this celebration, the great value of the Institute was repeatedly emphasised: a centre for nursing studies, which has established itself on the country’s health scene for the high specialisation it offers its students, who come not only from Burkina Faso, but also from 12 other African nations.

Burkina Faso still remains an extremely poor nation, where the majority of the population lives in a precarious state and without access to basic sanitation, health and education services. In recent years, the situation has worsened further due to terrorism that has targeted the country.

Cultivating and specialising in health and nursing appears to be a priority, and the school in Ouagadougou offers one of the best study paths. To support the centre and strengthen our support for the Burkinabe population, we inaugurated on 1 March the ‘Installation of solar panels at the Institut Supérieur Privé de Santé Saint Camille de Lellis’which will be completed at the end of August and includes the purchase and installation of a number of solar panels and a system for injecting energy directly into the consumer grid during these six months. The aim is to ensure that the institute can become energy self-sufficient through renewable sources.

We are happy to be able to contribute to the further improvement of this centre of excellence, in the hope that it will continue to be an important training centre, not only for its country, but also for neighbouring countries, as it is today.

THE BELL RINGS IN GARANGO, CLASSES BEGIN!

Our project ‘Construction of a kindergarten in Garango’ funded by the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI), which we have told you about several times over the past year, has recently come to an end.

Garango is located in Burkina Faso – in the central eastern zone – within the diocese of Tenkodogo, one of the poorest areas of the country, with numerous health and educational deficiencies. We decided to intervene in an attempt to fill some of these gaps and in the hope of helping the local population to achieve a higher standard of living.

In particular, we were told of the absence of a kindergarten and – consequently – the impossibility for children in the area to be able to undertake a normal schooling and education preparatory to primary schools. To make up for this shortcoming, we decided last year to submit a project to build the school facility.

From the outset, it seemed an ambitious goal, considering the situation of political and social uncertainty in the entire country in recent years, but fortunately the project did not encounter any difficulties: the construction work on the structure was carried out swiftly and Within a year, we have not only seen this school come into being, but we have seen it filled with desks, chairs, games and everything necessary for the proper development of the young pupils.

The children were divided into three large classrooms according to age, creating a Petite Section, a Moyenne Section and a Grande Section. The first section consists of 27 pupils, 10 boys and 17 girls, while the second consists of 26, 14 boys and 14 girls, the last section has not been formed, but as early as next year it will be enlivened with all the children of the current Moyenne Section.

Numerous activities are planned each day: colouring, drawing, learning the basics of maths, starting to read, spending time on physical activity and, of course, playing. The facility has a large enclosed courtyard where the children, in complete safety, can spend carefree hours and, in addition, hosts a canteen that guarantees one meal a day for every pupil at the school.

If the primary objective was to build, furnish and activate the school, the secondary objective was to raise the awareness of the local population on the importance of education: in fact, it seems essential to get children started on a proper learning path from an early age to ensure their proper development. Thanks to the local staff working within the facility, even though our activities have ended, the school will continue to be a reference point for the entire community.

We are very happy to have completed the project, contributing to the realisation of this school that will give many children the opportunity to laugh, play, colour, and experience a peaceful childhood, understanding the value of sociality and sharing, in the light-heartedness that that age deserves, but that often – in similar contexts – cannot have.

 

HEALTH FOR ALL IN LIMA

Salute e Sviluppo has a clear mission: to improve the living conditions of every individual, especially the most vulnerable (children and women), by promoting fair and sustainable development processes in access to health and education services, social and economic empowerment.

To carry it forward, there are many projects that we inaugurate each year with prestigious partners and donors, but there are also many initiatives that Health and Development pursues on its own, funding support activities for those in need who ask for help.

A few months ago, the Asociación corazones & Manos Solidarias San Francisco, which has long been working on Peruvian soil to improve the health conditions of the young patients of the San Bartolomé and Cayetano Heredia hospitals in Lima, proposed to us to contribute to the ‘Health for All: Diazossido Project’.

Edrick and Samuel are two very young children (1 year old and 4 years old respectively) suffering from congenital hyperinsulinism (HC), a very rare endocrine disease that develops in the first months of life and can lead to severe health impairment in young patients, causing severe neurological problems, in some cases irreversible.

This disease in Peru is particularly compromising due to delays in diagnosis and administration of the right medication – the Diazoxide – which is not marketed in the country and which is prohibitively expensive, both for the hospitals themselves and for the poorest families, who do not have the possibility of importing it from abroad. The administration of the drug, in most cases, has to be long-lasting in order to ensure the children’s recovery, which makes it even more difficult to maintain a sufficient supply.

To make up for this serious shortage, the Asociación corazones & Manos Solidarias San Francisco has for years been searching for public and private donors who can contribute to the purchase and shipment of the life-saving drug. Salute e Sviluppo decided to respond affirmatively to this request and purchase the Diazoxide needed for the current and future care of little Edrick, Samuel and many other children who will need it in the next two years.

We at Salute e Sviluppo are very happy to be able to intervene in the first person, helping those in need, and in this case we hope that – also thanks to our contribution – the little patients in the hospitals of Lima suffering from this disease and their families can finally find hope again.

 

SNEHAGRAM: THE INDEPENDENT LIFE OF YOUNG HIV-POSITIVE PEOPLE

The project “Towards the future of young people at Snehagram Centre Transition Programme for Independent Living’.thanks to the contribution of the Catholic Church, which earmarks part of the eight per thousand of the total IRPEF revenue for charitable interventions in favour of the Third World. We had already told you about this project that has kept us busy in India since 1 September 2018, aided by the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) and in collaboration with the Sneha Charitable Trust (SCT) association, to complete the education and training of no less than 70 HIV-positive girls and boys.

In India, HIV status still represents a stigma for society: all those with HIV/AIDS are shunned and placed on the margins of a society that still struggles to accept them. Most HIV-positive young people have often been orphaned by the very disease that afflicts them. In such cases, it is crucial to accommodate them in facilities that give them the possibility of not being alone and of building a decent future for themselves. The programme promoted by the association Sneha Charitable Trust is divided into several pathways, each of which is tailored to a specific age group: from a very young age, children are taken in, living in the community, having access to all necessary medical care and growing up in an educational and stimulating environment.

Snehagram is the last phase of the project and involves accompanying 18-24 year olds towards independent/semi-independent living. In order to achieve the goal, the initiative provides a housing solution for each of the young people and vocational paths suitable for enhancing their skills and entering the world of work.

For this reason, four ‘cluster houses’ were built. In each house lives a group of five or six young people, whose members have been trained to do different jobs according to their abilities, specifically: some are engaged in animal husbandry, others in agriculture, mechanics, plumbing, IT, photography, videography and tailoring. All training courses were chosen by the students according to their own inclinations, helped by a tutor.

After an initial phase in which the young people were able to train and decide for themselves the discipline in which they wanted to specialise, the project started a second phase in which all of them were able to carry out their chosen task in a professional manner and start earning an income.

Four barns were built and 25 cows and two bulls were purchased, as well as two milking machines to facilitate the work. The milk produced was sold to neighbouring dairies and all income went to the project boys.

It was poultry breeding also increased with excellent results: 10 batches of chickens were produced and sold on each of the four farms, the resulting profit went to the young people participating in the project who, already starting to receive an income, can gradually become more and more independent.

In the agricultural area, a total of four greenhouses and a pond were built to collect rainwater, which is used for irrigating the land. To improve this aspect, a reservoir and other facilities for storing open water were also provided, and a well was dug. Hydroponic cultivation was also started, with the purchase of materials for drip irrigation, specific tools, saplings for planting and fertile fertiliser.

Other boys dedicated themselves to making paper bags from old newspapers, which were then sold to neighbouring medicine shops. Each boy came to produce an average of 500 envelopes or 100 paper bags.

Finally, all those trained in mechanical, electronic and hydraulic systems were placed in various production and assembly companies in the area. Their housing also tries to respond as best as possible to the need to be close to the workplace, being located not near greenhouses and farms, but close to industrial areas.

The project has been very successful and now, at the end, the impact it has had on the lives of every single boy in Snehagram is tangible. They have been successfully launched into independent living: each of them has already started earning an income, being able to live in a house that is adequate for their health needs, and also close to their working environment.

The project should have been finished earlier, but the Covid- 19 pandemic slowed down the work. India was hit hard and even the Snehagram centre was not spared, most of its occupants fell ill and planned activities did not continue as planned. At the end of the pandemic emergency there were no further hiccups and the project continued as planned.

We are happy to have been able to help the young people of Snehagram who, in the absence of the centre founded by the Sneha Charitable Trust, would have been forced into a life on the margins of society, with no chance of employment.

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.

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