Photo: Mauro Fermariello

3 NEWS FROM LACOR HOSPITAL 2011

News from Lacor Hospital A dream has come true in Uganda

Portraits of commitment for the Hospital

Donato Greco......................................................................p. 2



Piergiuseppe Agostoni..........................................................p. 4

Being a nurse in Lacor........................................................................p. 6

Bulletin for benefactors and friends interested in keeping abreast on news from Lacor Hospital and the Teasdale-Corti Foundation

News and events from the Canadian Foundation..........................p. 7

TEASDALE-CORTI FOUNDATION FOR LACOR HOSPITAL

Year VII – n. 3 – July 2011 Bulletin published by Fondazione Piero e Lucille Corti - Milan (I) and Teasdale-Corti Foundation Montréal (CA) Teasdale-Corti Foundation 8880 Boul. Lacordaire – Saint Léonard QC - H1R 2B3 (CA) - Tel. +1.514.253.1737 [email protected] - www.teasdalecorti.org

T hey

all have the same common denominator : an absolute , non - compromising passion for

pital , which , one day , touched their heart .

D irectors

T wo

L acor H osF oundation B oard of them on our path .

senior members of the I talian

tell us about their lives , motivations and the stories that brought

Portraits of commitment for the Hospital NAME: DONATO GRECO RESIDENT IN: ROME BOARD MEMBER SINCE: 1993

JOB Professor, medical epidemiologist, consultant at the Istituto Superiore della Sanità (ISS), National Centre for epidemiology, surveillance and health promotion. In the past, he was Manager for Research, Epidemiology Laboratory and Biostatistics at the ISS and, from 2004 to 2006, General Manager at Healthcare Protection for the Ministry of Health. He is also a volunteer professor at the Faculty of Medicine of Gulu University. «I became a member of the board at the invitation of Piero, whom I had met 10 years before when he had asked for support from the ISS to understand what mysterious disease was spreading amongst young people in Uganda that they initially called slim disease. Years later, when the disease was identified and became known as AIDS, analyzing the organic materials of his patients, we understood that Piero had already foreseen what was happening. In 1989, Lacor Hospital and the ISS started a joint research action on AIDS, headed by Matthew Lukwiya at the time. This collaboration continues to this day, and I often visit Lacor where a dedicated laboratory is open. It was a short distance from professional collaboration to falling in love and making friends with the Cortis: this is how we began sharing projects and promotion activities in Italy». HOW DO YOU CONTRIBUTE TO OUR CAUSE? «Now I play 2 roles. The Lacor Board of Directors asked me to help improve quality. Last year we took the first steps in this direction by checking the adequacy of drug prescriptions and preventing hospital infections. In September there will be a second quality audit. My second role is fundraising through the Foundation, and it combines two loves: the love for Lacor and that of woodworking. I have a diploma in artistic woodturning and I love this hobby very much. For Lacor, I began producing art pens, made with 2

tropical Ugandan woods and decorated with an enamelled Hospital logo. I use woods such as ebony, bubinga, African walnut, padauk and mahogany. These woods are particularly hard and their grain emphasises their live structure. Many find that ebony pens are special since they are black and yellow, not being aware that ebony has yellow bark and that only the inside is black. This is a demanding activity: making a single pen takes me from two to three hours. They are crafted by hand, one by one, and each piece is unique. With manual work, around 10% of material is wasted (which happens especially when I am tired! When I realize that I’m beginning to make mistakes, I stop working…) My hope is that this hobby finds some response, a market in Italy, a network of customers who purchase my pens and can support the Foundation and the Hospital. My dream is that production can be moved to Uganda where we could produce the pens at a lower cost.» HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN TO LACOR? «At least a dozen times, but I never left the Hospital compound. I really regret this: I have never gone to Murchison Falls!» YOUR CLEAREST MEMORY «Of Piero and Lucille, I remember their smile and rigour. They were “Switzerland in Lacor”. Lucille always smiled, even when her lips had turned violet because of her disease. What they had and what they spread as an infection were rigour and commitment to doing things well, to having control over everything, and they also had exceptional optimism. They combined total dedication with extraordinary efficiency. They were great masters, of life, science, service and love.»

In the life of Donato Greco, there are two passions: woodturning and Lacor Hospital. United, these passions help the hospital and give life to unique art objects like these pens.

Art that helps a gift with character that helps the cause...

a unique object, a precious company gift, a refined choice for memorable moments.

Each pen is a unique hand-crafted piece, made out of fine african hardwood obtained from wood processing waste materials to which prof. Greco gives new life and shape. The types of wood used are ebony, bubinga, rosewood, mahogany. Metal parts are 24kt gold plated with enameled Lacor Hospital logo on the clip. Prof. Greco donated these pens to the Foundation, bearing all production costs. The money raised will therefore be given entirely to the Foundation. To order: Please contact Diane McKay by email at [email protected] or by phone at (450) 629-9622. Pen: can $ 40 Box pen and pencil: can $ 60

THE HAPPIEST AND THE SADDEST MOMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE LACOR «The happiest was the party for Lucille’s comeback after a long period of treatment in London, when her disease was already at a very advanced stage. It was a great celebration, full of joy. The saddest moment was the Ebola epidemic. I remained at the Lacor for three weeks. Matthew’s smile has remained an unforgettable memory in my mind, and then the white boots, the white coats, the mistakes, the horrible end. And a feeling of guilt about his death, which might have been prevented.» PERSONAL FEATURES «I have a clone: my brother Luigi. We share the same features, since we are identical twins, and also a passion for the the Lacor. Luigi contributed to the establishment of Gulu University and he gave the degree to the first 100 doctors. He also conceived Nutricam, the special food for malnourished children that is prepared at the Lacor. I got him involved since he is a nutritionist and I saw so many children

starving.* Then he also got Africa blues! In addition, we are both carpenters. He has also used his hobby to the benefit of Lacor: he has made the slide, the merry-go-round and the other children’s toys that are located in the paediatrics courtyard.» WORDS, OBJECTS (OR OTHER THINGS) THAT HAVE LEFT A MARK IN YOUR LIFE «Gandhi and wood. By wood I mean the tree, not as a still object, but as a living material, that goes on living forever.» WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF YOUR DEDICATION TO LACOR HOSPITAL? «I am a Catholic. I have always felt the seed of missionary service in me, which I also carried out in Italy in Scampia

*This problem was very serious during the 20 years of war, with 90% of refugees among the population, and therefore the impossibility to cultivate the land. Now that peace has returned, the number of malnourished people treated by the hospital has markedly diminished. 3

and Secondigliano, where I lived for 9 years and volunteered at the popular healthcare centre which I established. It is a children’s home run by my wife and I. A very hard experience but also a very beautiful one.» FUTURE CHALLENGES «The sustainability of the Hospital and in particular the relationship between quality, innovation and sustainability. Treatments cost more and more and demand is increasing, but there is not enough local wealth to pay for them. The disease of poverty accounts for 99%, but there are also cancers, cardiovascular diseases or more complex diseases that require increasingly specialized and expensive treatments. The age when quinine was sufficient to treat patients is luckily over.» Chiara Paccaloni

NAME: PIERGIUSEPPE “MECKI” AGOSTONI RESIDENT IN: MILAN BOARD MEMBER SINCE: 2003

JOB Cardiologist at the Centro Monzino in Milan, where he coordinates the Critical Cardiology Unit (including the Heart Failure Operating Unit, Clinical Cardiology and Rehabilitation Cardiology, plus the emergency and urgent cardiology operating units and the coronary intensive care operating unit). Prof. Agostoni also teaches at the Faculty of Medicine of the Milan State University and at Washington University, in the USA. HOW DO YOU CONTRIBUTE TO THE FOUNDATION’S CAUSE? «I would still do these things for Lacor even if I were not a member of the board. I was at Lacor for the first time in 1978. At first I directly helped the Hospital. I was more an assistant to Brother Elio Croce and the previous “Combonian construction brothers” of Lacor than a doctor. We built and built for years: the sewage system, the lagoons... Not everything turned out to be perfect, partly because we did not have enough labour due to the war. For example, one of the lagoons came out more triangular than rectangular in shape. “Is this the result of sending you to school?” Elio used to tell me!» «After Lucille’s death, my task was to stay with Piero. I can4

Prof. Donato Greco in Lacor Hospital during the Ebola breakout

not recall how many times we watched Lucille’s interviews together, again and again, and the recordings in which she was present. Piero had a million ideas even though his body was no longer fit for the task. He was also my patient then: I began dealing with him when he started having heart problems, in 1991 more or less. I have not been to Uganda for two years now because my job has become increasingly demanding, but there are still many things we can discuss and do together. I believe my greatest merit for the Foundation was getting Guido Coppadoro involved in its cause. He is an electro-technical engineer and is giving an extremely precious contribution as a volunteer to the Hospital in terms of technical support». HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BEEN TO LACOR? «A couple dozen times. The first time I remained there for 4 months. I was studying medicine and Piero asked me to find things from all over Uganda. It was at the time of the war against Tanzania and Piero sent me to find the most diverse building materials, cement, pipes, poles… I was always travelling. I went round with a red truck, a driver and a case full of

money, extremely anxious about being robbed, but nothing ever happened. When I returned to the Hospital, Lucille took me with her to the ward and to the outpatients to observe and learn. It was one of the most beautiful times in my life. I miss so many things: from Sunday afternoons when we went to Gulu to make telephone calls and stood in line for hours and hours in front of the post office because calling was not possible; the afternoon sun when everything was calm and you could hear birds singing, or the evenings before dusk, when we spent a few minutes outside the Hospital and along this trans-African road (which goes from Kenya to Sudan), we saw everything passing by: soldiers heading towards guerrilla warfare in Sudan or returning from there injured. Simply standing there and staring out you could see bits of history passing before your eyes». YOUR CLEAREST MEMORY «We had to reclaim a woody area that was used for burying the dead from the guerrilla warfare, or those that nobody wanted, where I myself had buried a guerrilla soldier years before, a youngster I had found dead. We wanted to build on that land and since nobody wanted to desecrate a place where the dead were resting, I did it myself: we had to remove them one by one and bury them again, besides removing roots and plants from the land. No one wanted to help us. They were scared. They wanted the support of a shaman but it would be too expensive. Finally we found some people ready to help, but we had to be very careful and check all the bags they filled because it occurred to us that they tried to cheat by putting in two bones and a papaya, simulating a skull. We found 166 corpses. Besides, we had few bags and Elio wanted us to empty them in the burial pit to use them again. Then I looked into myself and thought: you could be in the Maldives. So I personally funded the purchase of new bags, which after all cost just a few cents. That time we also found a nest of cobra eggs. I said to Elio “we should throw them away”. “Absolutely not!” he replied (wanting to use cobras for their poison). However, we forgot the existence of the nest and on the same ground we built the house for the policemen… I remember once he found a little cobra. He placed it in my hands and ordered me not to move: “I’ll go and see in the book what type of cobra this is”. Luckily, it was a small one…» THE HAPPIEST AND THE SADDEST MOMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH LACOR «A sad and happy moment at the same time: at Piero’s funeral, Elio had an opening made in his coffin, covered by a glass, so that we would see his face, to comply with the local custom of showing the face of the dead person. He had been on display at the Lacor’s church. When I entered the church,

my heart rejoiced: there were hundreds of children around him. I called Dominique to run and see». PERSONAL FEATURES Prof. Agostoni is widely known as “Mecki”, in his professional environment as well. This nickname comes from a fancy character from the German tradition, named Mecki, who stars in various stories and tales. It is a porcupine. It was his Swiss nanny who gave him this name: as soon as he was born, he was so full of curly hair that she spontaneously uttered: “This is a Mecki!” Prof. Agostoni loves collecting objects in the shape of porcupine. WORDS, OBJECTS (OR OTHER THINGS) THAT HAVE LEFT A MARK IN YOUR LIFE «The Italy-Uganda airplane ticket that his father, colleague and friend of Piero since university, gave him as a present when he was 19. He wanted his son, “always a very dissatisfied teenager”, to have a significant experience. Two years before his departure, there was the famous “Operation Entebbe”, the raid of the Israeli army that freed the hostages of the Air France flights hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1976. This event delayed his first journey to Lacor by a good two years, but it was symbolically the start of a collaboration that still lasts today». WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF YOUR DEDICATION TO LACOR HOSPITAL? «It is a religious reason but, above all, simply Lacor does me good. I remember when I came to Italy after being there: I became aware that 90% of the problems that you are told about are no way as serious as the ones encountered down there, and this helps put everything in perspective. Lacor helped build up my character». FUTURE CHALLENGES «Presently, the Foundation exists and operates because there are people who exist and operate. While for the Hospital, the Africanization process is institutionalized and its operation depends on skills to be found locally, the Foundation still depends on people. If Dominique and Bruno Corrado were not there, it could not sustain itself. Dominique took over a faltering situation and turned it into a success. To do this, the Foundation has become her entire life, her home. Her dedication has no limits. For the future, I think the cause of the Foundation should be made more shared, a further step towards institutionalization must be made and responsibilities must be shared among a larger number of people». Chiara Paccaloni 5

F ilippo C ampo , from the C anadian F oundation , interviewed S ister S haron A ber , H ospital C hildren ’ s W ard , to lead us into a typical working day in the hospital

Being a nurse in Lacor Hospital

DAILY WORK “At Lacor Hospital, the number of patients is roughly 80 patients per nurse. It’s really too much work for a nurse, but we have to organize ourselves. First thing we do is general cleaning of the wards, then we gather the patients and their attendants outside in the courtyard and give them health education talks. Then we organize for ward rounds, we line up the patients. After, we prepare for treatment. In between all that activity, we always handle emergencies.” THE ATTENDANTS “The caregivers you see here in the Children’s Ward are the parents of the children. It’s very important for us to give them health talks and teach them serious health indicators, so if the child gets worse they can report to us. Due to the overwhelming number of patients, we can’t monitor a child closely as ideally we are supposed to do, so they help us a lot in the nursing care, they play a very good role in easing our work!” MALARIA “Malaria is the leading cause of death. It’s an infection caused by a parasite which is transmitted by the female mosquito. The symptoms are fever, joint pain, shivering attacks, general body weakness, vomiting and in children also diarrhea. It attacks both children and adults but children are more vulnerable. We normally have good endings or bad endings”. Just outside the Children’s ward, Sr Sharon introduces us to a woman whose name is Akello Sarah. Happy, Sarah mentions that the hospital treated her baby of malaria and she’s glad that she’s going back home. On the other hand, the death of a child happens quite often. “It can be so grieving for a parent, so devastating, you have to console the parents, reassure them, give them all the care and concern you have”, Sr Sharon comments. RESPONSIBILITIES “I have a lot of duties to perform because I have to do the managerial and clinical part of the work. Basically I have to organize the day-to-day activity of the ward and make sure that it is running well, and also to take care of the staff ’s needs and problems… so I have a lot of problem-solving to do and any6

L acor

Everyday-life of a nurse

Photo by Filippo Campo



nurse in - charge in

thing related to the good running of the ward. We do night supervision. As all the in-charges, I regularly have the task of supervising the whole hospital at night when the senior nursing officers are not there, so the entire hospital is on you and you’re answerable in case of anything. There’s a lot to be done as an in-charge, it’s not only work in the ward.” CAREER “I started this career in 1999 when I joined Lacor School of Nursing for enrolment, then I started work in 2002 as an enrolled nurse. Then after two years I went back to school for registered nursing in Rubanga School of Nursing, Kampala. When I came back I was appointed as in-charge in the Burns Unit. After one year and eight months I went back for a diploma in midwifery, so I have double training, as nurse and midwife. Then I came back and now I’m in-charge of the Pediatric Unit.” PERSONAL LIFE “I’m still single, I don’t have kids, but I have people of whom I’m supposed to take care. I’d love to have children in the future, not very many, maybe two or three… and get married. I don’t regret having any kid now because I had an ambition to fulfill, that’s maybe why I’m still childless, but I will have children!”

LEISURE “We work a lot, we really get tired at the end of the day, but I have hobbies like dancing, hanging out with friends, creating new friends… and really trying to make myself happy.” LACOR “I really prefer to work in Lacor because of its good reputation. CANADIAN FOUNDATION - NEWS AND EVENTS 50TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS Several events were held in Quebec throughout the spring to mark the 50th anniversary of Lucille and Piero’s arrival in Uganda. Awareness-Raising and Visibility On March 26, eleven students from the Public Relations program at UQAM organised an evening entitled Un verre à leur santé! (A Toast to Their Health). Some 175 people took part in the first edition of this event, which raised $5,675 for the Foundation (see pictures below). Dominique Corti was invited to take part in the Youth Millennium Summit on May 12 to present her thoughts on the experience of Lacor Hospital in the context of international development and goals for the millennium. Dominique Corti and Filippo Campo delivered presentations in schools and fundraising activities were held for the benefit of the Foundation: -- Sainte-Anne College, Lachine (Day without uniform); -- Poly-Jeunesse School, Laval (Rocking chair and dance benefit marathons); -- Collège Regina Assumpta (Conference); -- Lucille Teasdale High School (Conference); -- St-Laurent High School (Day without uniform); -- Pointe-aux-Trembles High School (“The Lacor Show”, “24

Besides, they have benefits for the working staff, they have nice accommodation, and also healthcare: parents of the staff are treated for free… that privilege is very good compared to other places, so… I think Lacor is still the best place to work . And whenever you work in Lacor, your nursing skills are always upto-date and everywhere you go, you shine!” Filippo Campo Hours of Silence” and sales of Foundation items to parents and students); -- Collège de Montréal (Fundraising among students); -- Sainte-Marcelline College (Conference by Dominique Corti); St-Pierre and Des Sentiers High School, Quebec City (Conference). Finally, Dominique Corti introduced Lacor Hospital to residents of the Elogia and Oasis retirement homes. Media Coverage A report by journalist Gilles Gougeon on the evolution of Lacor Hospital was broadcast during the Une heure sur terre television program on April 8. The report can be viewed on Radio-Canada’s Web site. The launch of the revised edition of the biography Un rêve pour la vie organized by Libre Expression was held in the presence of Michel Arseneault, Marina Orsini and Dominique Corti. Also, an article by Michel Arseneault featuring excerpts from the book was published in L’Actualité magazine. Finally, Dominique Corti gave several interviews to various media outlets during her visit in April and May. All these events allowed the Foundation to receive new donations for Lacor Hospital. We wish to thank all our donors, as well as people who contributed in their own way to organizing these events. On behalf of Lacor Hospital and the Teasdale-Corti Foundation, thank you everyone!

Diane McKay

Photos: The fundraising evening Un verre à leur santé! (left) and (right) the students from the Public Relations program at UQAM who organised it

7

Photo by Mauro Fermariello

The Teasdale-Corti Foundation The Teasdale-Corti Foundation is a charitable organization created to contribute to the support of the Lacor Hospital in northern Uganda. Reg. N. : 890520745RR 0001

Donations Donations to the Teasdale-Corti Foundation can be sent by mail to: 8880, boul. Lacordaire, St-Léonard, QC, H1R 2B3 (CA) or online: www.teasdalecorti.org 8

CONTACT Filippo Campo - [email protected] Tel.: +1.514.253.1737 8880, boul. Lacordaire, St-Léonard, QC. H1R 2B3 (CA) Translation: Luca Trentini Revision: Raynald Adams, C. Tr. News from Lacor is a bulletin offered to all who wish to receive news on the Lacor Hospital and the Teasdale-Corti Foundation. It is published by Fondazione Piero e Lucille Corti (Milan, Italy) and Teasdale-Corti Foundation (Montreal, Canada).