Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - The mission of 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 now in Benin, West Africa. The aim is to restore sight to people suffering from cataracts 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..
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 are operating 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 are co-operating with the cataract operations. The last eye operations were performed here three years ago. People were informed via radio of the presence of the Italian mission and they are coming from all over the region often making long journeys on foot to reach the hospital which is the most important health centre in Natitingou, an area in between borders with Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin.
In Sub-Saharan Africa blindness is a social and sanitary emergency which affects about 2 million people without assistance and this leads to pathologies which in this part of Africa are not favoured by food shortage, lack of clean water, and particular climatic conditions.. Furthermore an adult who regains sight is a help for village and children forced to accompany blind people are free to go to school. (AP) (22/6/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:35; Parole:409)
