AFRICA/ETHIOPIA - Medical aid in Tigray: "Balm that soothes and heals wounds"

Shire (Agenzia Fides) - "Collaboration is not just about big strategies, but about concrete things that must be done today, without waiting," says Father Dante Carraro, director of the Italian medical aid organization "Medici con l'Africa CUAMM", which operates in Africa and works to protect the health of African populations. The missionary reports on one of the recent missions in which he is directly involved together with the doctors and volunteers.

"We are in Shire, in the north-west of Tigray, the northernmost region of Ethiopia, which has been ravaged by a conflict that seems to have no end since autumn 2020 (see Fides, 3/12/2020). We have focused our intervention on the main hospital in the city. With 250 beds, it is the only medical facility capable of providing some level of care to the population and the displaced, albeit only in a makeshift manner," the priest reported after a recent meeting in Shire with a representative of the Tigray health authorities. "Two years ago, 4,000 births were registered in the hospital. Last year, the number of births rose to 5,500. This too is a sign of recovery, but the peripheral network must definitely be strengthened. This is also why we chose a small hospital further south, in Indabaguna, forty minutes away. A facility that we hope to put into operation together with four other health centers: Alaganesh, Hoomar, Five Angels and St. Augustin."

"The meaning of our commitment is to treat the many wounds of history and to become a balm that soothes and heals the wounds in a region that has been devastated and tormented by the atrocities of a civil war that has sown violence, rubble and misery," says the priest and cardiologist. "There are an estimated 500,000 victims and 1 million displaced people. Of these, up to 500,000 are in Shire, 80 percent of whom have found shelter with families who were able to take in the refugees."

"We have experienced a spirit of concrete solidarity, as in this new mission, made possible thanks to the support of the Italian government and realized thanks to numerous special collaborations to respond to people's needs, to rebuild what has been destroyed, starting with the hospital in Shire," concludes the Director of Cuamm. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 13/9/2024)

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