Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Padova (Agenzia Fides) – Since 1950 the Doctors with Africa Cuamm organisation has worked side by side with the Africans, facing emergencies but with the end goal of maintaining a health service. Day after day, volunteers commit to guaranteeing help, treatment and care, to remove the word 'survival' and replace it with 'development, life and health'. The objective is to ensure accessible services to the poor by supporting small maternity clinics, district and regional level hospitals, and giving training in universities. To increase the level of professionalism and knowledge in each territory is the big dream: an Africa that no longer needs anyone from the outside, an Africa able to independently manage the needs of their own people.
It is in this context that one of the recent initiatives of the Cuamm, borne from the encounter with Italian writer Paul Rumiz who wrote a book to support the campaign for free access to childbirth and infant care, saving mothers and babies in 15 hospitals throughout Africa. Last year alone, Doctors with Africa Cuamm, with the services they support, resulted in 437,492 outpatient visits, 108,442 hospitalisations, 123,016 vaccinations, and 19,491 births, bringing hope and a future where the right to health is ignored and denied. Currently, the organisation is present in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda, with 15 hospitals. 25 districts are supported with public health, maternal and child care, fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. There are 3 rehabilitation centres, 4 nursing schools and 3 universities also supported. (AP) (16/3/2011 Agenzia Fides)
