Two campervan set up as mobile health clinic are located in St. Peter’s square, across the left side of the Basilica’s colonnade, to offer medical healthcare to the most vulnerable and homeless people, from Monday to Sunday November the 13th, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. A healthcare facility provided by Doctors with Africa CUAMM on occasion of the World Day of the Poor to be celebrated the 13th of November. The initiative is promoted by the Dicastery for Evangelisation and in partnership with Petrone Group, Gilead Sciences and Bourelly Group.
Doctors, residents, CUAMM operators coming from all areas will take turns to welcome people and give basic assistance as blood pressure and blood glucose measurements, basic check-ups, Covid-19 tests, HIV tests, and to assess the health status of people far from the traditional routes, referring them to the national health system if needed. One of the two campervan is used every day by Cuamm to give medical assistance to the poorest in the ghettos of Foggia province, Apulia, while the other is kindly lent by Petrone Group and Bourelly Group.
“Jesus Christ […] for your sake became poor» (cfr 2 Cor 8,9). This is the title proposed by Pope Francis to celebrate this day, to medidate on the fact that “In front of the poor one does not engage in rhetoric, but rolls up one’s sleeves and puts faith into practice through direct involvement, which cannot be delegated to anyone. […] It is not, therefore, a question of having a merely assistancial attitude towards the poor, as often happens; instead, it is necessary to commit oneself so that no one lacks what is necessary. It is not activism that saves, but sincere and generous attention that allows one to approach a poor person as a brother who stretches out his hand so that I may awaken from the torpor into which I have fallen’.
Yesterday, the US ambassador to the Holy See, Joe Donnelly, Michelangelo Simonelli of Gilead, Massimo Petrone of Petrone Group and Guido Bourelly of Gruppo Bourelly visited (pictured).
These words sound sadly relevant and meaningful today that Africa is experiencing innumerable disasters due to the global crisis we are all living in. A crisis that, as always happen, hits hardly the poorest and the most vulnerable. In fragile contexts, national health systems have been weakened by the pandemia that has also affected access to health facilities. Moreover, this dramatic situation is exacerbated by numerous factors as the effects of the serious global crisis we are experiencing, with the war in Ukraine; climate change; energy speculation and the many other forgotten wars…
Consequences are severe for us, as we can all testify while are dramatic in Africa where basic goods prices are soaring, from flour to milk to fuel. Health systems are as bad as 10 years ago. In this scenario, the main challenge for Cuamm is to stay by the side of the the poorest, in Italy as well as in Africa, to face daily battles which are getting bigger.
