Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) -Doctors belonging to the St John of God Hospitaller Brothers Association for Distant Patients AFMAL and the Italian airforce continue their efforts to help the blind in Africa. After a humanitarian mission last November to Gao in Mali, the team of voluntary doctors is now on its way to Benin, West Africa. The team of religious and military doctors will spend ten days at the local hospital performing eye operations to remove cataracts the main cause of blindness in this region.
The medical team led Brother Benedetto Possemato, AFMAL vice president and Brother Gerardo D’Auria, director of the San Pietro Hospital in Rome, comprises medical personnel from St John of God hospitals in Rome, Naples and Benevento, and doctors of the Health Corps of the Italian Air Force. They will operate at St John of God Hospital Tanguiétà, built by the St John of God Brothers of Italy in 1970 and today run by African staff. Local doctors and nurses will co-operate with the cataract operations.
The mission will return to Italy on 27 June. It goal is to “restore light” to the blind, train local doctors and nursing staff, and free ‘guide children’ denied of their childhood and assigned to live with a blind person. (AP) (15/6/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:21; Parole:213)
