Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Ouagadougou (Agenzia Fides) – When they arrived in what was then Upper Volta (Burkina Faso's name at the time), in 1967, the Daughters of Saint Camillus (the Camillians) began a network of healthcare centers, offering quality health assistance, free of charge, to the people of Burkina Faso. The most ambitious operation began in early 1972, in Dassasgho. The building of a formation center and a center for caring for the sick, run by the young Camillian novices. The plan called for the construction of classrooms, auditoriums, teacher's rooms, library, guest rooms, bedrooms, infirmary, storage room, showers, and bathrooms. Another two buildings adjacent to this one would be smaller, holding the wash room, storage area, kitchens, dining room, and chapel. And on the same property, a small farm with stables, a chicken coop, and a garden.
During the construction, the center already housed 9 girls in formation, between 13-18 years of age. With time, it became a real health complex, including a new clinic (inaugurated in 1975), an analysis laboratory, a nutritional center, a larger chapel, and the postulancy, begun in 1987. In 20 years' time, there were over 100 students, and the nearby clinic of Bulbi had quintupled its attendance to the sick.
Today, the complex is an oasis, later expanded, which includes an entire hospital care center with state-of-the-art instruments. There is also a pediatrics clinic, a mother-baby care center, a center for babies born prematurely, an analysis laboratory, a dentistry office, and a pharmacy. The Sisters also promote “Ecole Ménagère St. Camille,” a school of home economics attended by hundreds of Burkina Faso's future mothers. (AM) (Agenzia Fides 20/11/2008)
