EUROPE/ITALY - Today, like yesterday: the Camillians at the forefront of the Covid-19 emergency

Monday, 11 May 2020 coronavirus   orders   solidarity   caritas   diseases  

CADIS

Rome (Agenzia Fides) - "Simple feelings such as proximity, compassion, understanding, closeness, collaboration, love, which are shown through a look, a smile, a hug, all things that today, in this forced isolation, seem impossible to do, are kept alive by the Ministers of the Sick, Camillians". Thus began the testimony sent to Fides by Luciana Mellone, head of the Historical Archive of the General House of the Camillians in Rome.
"In these days - she writes - the Camillians are at forefront in the Covid-19 emergency, once again putting their lives at risk to protect ours and often accompanying people in their passing at a time when they were deprived of the possibility of comfort and closeness of their family members".
As soon as the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the Camillian Disaster Service International (CADIS) Foundation, set up as a Task Force to deal with natural disasters and socio-health emergencies, mobilized to bring assistance to the most vulnerable populations.
"Faced with the precariousness of life and the urgent need for food - explains Mellone - the dilemma for many populations is to choose between starving at home or putting their lives at risk by going out to earn money".
To avoid a possible humanitarian crisis, CADIS International, in collaboration with the large Camillian family, has activated a program to provide food parcels that allow survival during these periods of isolation and help to close the lines of possible contagion of the infection.
The dedication of the Ministers of the Sick has not changed in the various situations: leprosy patients in China, Thailand, the Philippines, Africa, Brazil, or towards TB patients, and also towards patients suffering from HIV/AIDS and Ebola, and in the various wars of past centuries. (LM/AP) (Agenzia Fides, 11/5/2020)


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