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The Rehabilitation Centre named after AIM Group’s founder Enzo Buongiorno was created to help people with motor disabilities and offers post-trauma treatments and post-surgical rehabilitation. The Rehabilitation Centre is part of the FIMAC projects and is located in Bubanza, a village in the hills a one-hour drive from Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital.
Since its opening in 2016, the centre has treated a total of 555 patients, of which 299 were under the age of 5. Our little patients are treated for handicaps linked to physical impairments such as instability of the bones, joints or muscles leading to substantial restriction of movement. Some common conditions giving rise to motor disabilities are poliomyelitis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophies, amputation, fractures, or injuries of spine, head, soft tissues, etc.
During our last mission in Burundi in April 2018 we were able to follow the developments of the physiotherapy team that helps with the rehabilitation of these little children. Physiotherapists work to improve their movement skills and performance in things you and I take for granted like sitting, standing, and walking, as well as improvement of their flexibility, strength, and endurance. We are very proud we can help families to accept and treat handicapped children and we will continue as AIM Group to support and develop this project.
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I remember when my mother would take me to buy new shoes in Via del Teatro in Rome, light brown calfskin boots with laces, leather soles with that good smell of quality leather tanned with oil. The shopkeeper gave his little customers a plaything – usually a toy car. I left the shop with new shoes on my feet, a toy in hand and in a state that I think was as close to happiness as one can imagine. At school, during recess, I would take care not to spoil them while playing ball. I believe these feelings are common to children in all latitudes. I confirmed this when I saw the expression of joy on the faces of our little patients in Bubanza as I gave them beautiful new shoes from Italy.
This was made possible thanks to the generous gift of Margherita Caccetta, heir to the prestigious company of the same name of orthopaedic footwear located in Rome. Mrs. Caccetta provided us with a large quantity of shoes, some already delivered to the Sisters of St. Teresa of Calcutta in Bujumbura, others destined to our patients in Bubanza and to the orphanage attached to the Hospital. These orthopaedic shoes are very useful for corrective and post-operative purposes.
Thanks again for this important gift.
Pietro Ortensi
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A mission to Bubanza was undertaken to “our” hospital in Burundi from January 17 to February 7, 2018. I was joined by Dr Piero Petricca (the organiser) and nurse Mara Carrupt from “ANDARE OLTRE ONLUS” Foundation, an institution that has always worked in close collaboration with FIMAC ONLUS. 35 patients were operated on and treated for the following pathologies: osteomyelitis, malformations, trauma and burns. Also, two total hip replacement surgeries were performed by Dr Petricca, with the assistance of Mara Carrupt.
We continue to treat patients with osteomyelitis using antibiotic cement (gentamicin or gentamicin with vancomycin) a technique that seems to offer encouraging results (see Acti Accademia Lancisiana, Volume 61, No. 4 2017, available online at the Lancisiana Academy website).
Future activity in the program will be widespread testing for sickle cell anaemia using the rapid test method. Sickle cell anaemia or sickle cell disease is a genetic-based haemoglobinopathy widely present in central Africa and linked significantly to osteomyelitis. I have organised and will moderate “Haematogenous Osteomyelitis in Africa”, a symposium to be held June 19, 2018 at the Lancisiana Academy in Rome. This Academy has offered its patronage to FIMAC ONLUS since 2012. Participation is open to all and, for those interested, a certificate of participation will be issued on request.
Dr Pietro Ortensi
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Rohero is a suburb of Bujumbura, Burundi’s capital, where the Sisters of Saint Teresa of Calcutta have their home. These sisters welcome and assist the most desperate. Hard-working and efficient, they seem moved by feelings that do not hide an underlying depression, which must happen to those dedicated to supporting the needy. Motivated by something strong and resolute that cannot be defined, they are special people. I never imagined that someone could be so close to holiness.
We get to Rohero after driving across Bujumbura, normally noisy and animated by unruly traffic and cheerful horn honking, but now eerily silent and emptier than we had ever encountered. It had become a deserted city with an alarming and unnatural silence. The ramshackle blue and white taxi stops in front of the Sister’s Iron Gate, we ring, the gate opens and the car enters the empty courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard is a large mango tree whose shadow always welcomes the “guests” of Rohero: congenial people, always smiling even though they are the most underprivileged. We ring the doorbell and wait. A worried sister opens the door and calls the mother superior, who is a young Indian nun with a sweet expression. She welcomes us and we find our smiles again. We ask if there are any patients to examine. She brings us a child with osteomyelitis of the tibia (a severe infection of the bone), a woman with a fractured femur that did not heal correctly and an old woman with a deformed wrist. The tension is released; the courtyard is repopulated, crowded and lively, as we have been used to seeing over the years. Tomorrow we will examine those patients that need operations at the hospital in Bubanza.
Are you afraid? Tomorrow is a special day as there will be an important event and going out will be dangerous. Every day is special but tomorrow will be particularly momentous. We will see how it goes tomorrow. We leave Rohero and everything seems to have gone back to normal – the fear, violence for the moment has been won over. It is important is carry on “despite” what is going on around us. It’s just logical. To live is to continue in spite of everything as sooner or later all things must end. Nearby there is a school and we can hear children learning something by rote and their voices have a joyful chant.
Pietro Ortensi
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During May 2015, FIMAC sent the surgeons Prof. Vincenzo Monti, Dr. Pietro Ortensi, Dr. Stefano Carbone and Dr. Alfredo Antonucci, an anesthetist, on a mission to Burundi. They also accompanied a portable ultrasound machine of the latest generation to be donated to the hospital in Bubanza.
The team was not frightened away by news, before their departure, of a number of demonstrations against the government including serious accidents and protesters killed. Upon their arrival, a ghostly capital city, Bujumbura, greeted them. It was full of soldiers armed to the teeth scattered throughout the city with very few people around. Even the Sisters of Calcutta Rohero health center was strangely deserted as part of the population had fled to neighboring areas and those left in the city hardly wanted to approach this danger zone. Fortunately, the usual smiles of the sisters welcomed them as warmly as ever, giving them the right energy to start the mission.
The two week Bubanza mission was dedicated entirely to the management of patients, with thirty major orthopedic surgeries and nearly a hundred medical examinations. In addition, they were able to closely follow a young nurse who had had a reverse shoulder arthroplasty procedure performed through collaboration between FIMAC Onlus, Go Beyond Onlus (represented by Dr. Piero Petricca) and LIMA Corporate, a well-known Italian medical device company providing reconstructive orthopedic implants for various joints. Every day, this patient would have an hour of physical therapy helping her frozen shoulder to move more satisfactorily.
As usual, the two weeks were intense and full of work but this time the effort seemed harder due to the critical atmosphere in Burundi, political unrest, attempted coups, demonstrations with shots of gunfire, deaths and the increasing deterioration of basic necessities such as water and electricity. This state of affairs does not help the delicate situation in Burundi. We at the Foundation hope that these issues will be resolved quickly and, above all, that everything will turn out for the best for the suffering people of Burundi.
Stefano Carbone
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Another mission in Burundi, my second and hopefully not my last. I had the honour of accompanying prof. Monti and prof. Falez once again and we were joined by Alfredo Schiavone Panni, professor of orthopedics at the Università degli Studi del Molise in Campobasso.
What can I say … I cannot wait to go back! My first time in Africa was a year ago, it was like being born all over again, Africa is an inexplicable experience! The magic and mystery of this continent gets into your blood and you feel compelled to go back again and again. In Italian it’s called “mal d’Africa” a feeling of nostalgia for Africa and its people. The explosive force of nature is manifested not only in its surroundings but also in those that live there. What I miss the most are the smiles, handshakes, hugs and joviality of the Burundian people, their joy for life can be found in their everyday routines and even in their suffering. The inner peace that Africa conveys is difficult to describe but is definitely infectious, they need us and we need them…
Achille Contini
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Despite the Ebola alarm and the recent terrorist attack in France, the missions of FIMAC continue through the efforts of Professors Vincenzo Monti and Francesco Falez. The two orthopedic surgeons with two other surgeons from Avellino left Rome the 11th of January for Bujumbura, Burundi. The Secretary General Patrizia Semprebene Buongiorno will be joining them in the next few days to help speed up the termination of some projects. The commitment of FIMAC is constant and unrelenting, with two missions already scheduled, one in February and another in March / April. Let’s keep up the good work!!!!
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Last Monday we heard the tragic news of the violent deaths of three Xaverian Missionary Sisters. I was very distressed because FIMAC and this religious order have worked together supporting healthcare in Burundi. When I saw the identity of the three victims I realized that all of us at FIMAC knew them and knew the work they had done for so many years. They helped the poorest of the poor without asking for or receiving anything in return. For us, to the whole of Africa, and to everyone around the world, they were simply Sister Lucia Pulici, Sister Olga Raschietti and Sister Bernadetta Boggian.
Dr. Stefano Carbone
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Prof. Vincenzo Monti, the president and founder of the Non-Profit Organization FIMAC, was taken ill not soon after his return on March 8th from his latest mission in Burundi. He was hospitalized in the same hospital he ran for decades, Santo Spirito in Sassia. Current department head, Prof. Francesco Falez, who accompanied Monti to Burundi, admitted the president and founder of FIMAC for tests. The outcome was reassuring and after three days he was released fully recovered, eager to get back to organizing the next expedition to Africa in support of Burundian health.
From all the doctors of the International Foundation for Central Africa a heartfelt “Get well soon Monti!”
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Between August 4 and 25, two young orthopedic surgeons from Rome, Dr. Stefano Carbone and Dr. Paolo Albino, made yet another mission for FIMAC onlus in Burundi. During these three summer weeks the two doctors did a lot of hard work which can be synthesized with a number: 43. This is the number of interventions that were carried out, an indication of the continuous need of medical care that the Burundian population requires. Many with fractures filled the operating room at the Bubanza Hospital, leaving little room for rest. The two doctors also visited the new gym of the hospital, newly built and totally funded by AIM Group International. With this new grant and the indispensable help of some willing physiotherapist, it will finally be possible to follow more closely the post-operative patients, giving them an indispensable part of orthopedic treatment, the post-operative rehabilitation.
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