Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - With the help of the Italian Air Force, AFMAL association of the St John of God Hospitaller Brothers completed a successful "Restore Sight" from 23 November to 6 December in Mali undertaking 3,000 eye examinations and 700 operations to remove cataracts.
Moreover the team distributed hundreds of school-kits to a primary school in Ansongo and a Home for Orphans in Gao, the two localities where the Italian mission was based. Other initiatives, undertaken by the Italian team included payment of school fees for a number of poor children in collaboration with a local Child Protection association in Ansongo; and a new programme for two teachers trained to rehabilitate blind children to train local teachers in Gao.
The team of 16 doctors, oculists and anaesthetists and 14 nurses came from St John of God hospitals in Rome, Genzano, Palermo and Colleferro and from the medical corps of the Italian Air Force
Great satisfaction for AFMAL, as Brother Gerardo D’Auria, vice president of the association said: "in this part of the world where you have to pay for medical treatment and there are no universities, few people have the privilege of growing old and the cataract, which in Italy is a question of outpatient treatment, renders almost two million people blind. We are proud of what has been achieved with this mission and encouraged to persevere to organise similar missions in the future". (AP) (13/12/2007 Agenzia Fides; Righe:29; Parole:358)
