DOCTORS WITH AFRICA CUAMM
The first non-governmental organisation (NGO) in the field of healthcare to be officially recognised in Italy, CUAMM is the largest Italian body working to improve and safeguard the health of African populations. The organisation’s projects have long-term goals, even when facing emergency situations, providing quality healthcare services which are open to everyone. It is committed to training and to spreading scientific knowledge through its technical contributions to healthcare projects. Among the public institutions involved and the general public, it extols the value of solidarity and cooperation between populations.
History
Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s is truly a swiftly evolving journey: this evolution involves its staff, projects, relationships and the national and international political framework. The adventure which began in Padua has since its founding reached out in over a thousand directions.
Over a thousand, as many as the people who have given their service to Doctors with Africa CUAMM, offering their own commitment, professional and humanitarian, in many parts of the world.
Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s journey has involved it in social, political and religious events, both national and international, since the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century. The process towards the decolonisation and independence of African countries, the second Vatican Council, the declaration of Alma Ata – to mention some particularly important events – have had a direct and in some cases dramatic impact on the strategies, choices and running of the organisation. A look at some events will illustrate the hopes and expectations, as well as the spirit of serving others, which have inspired Doctors with Africa CUAMM since its origins.
Mission statement
Doctors with Africa CUAMM is an organisation which works to develop respect for the fundamental human right to health, and to ensure that healthcare services are available to everyone. Founded in 1950 with the aim of training doctors to work in developing countries under the name of CUAMM (University College for Aspiring Missionary Doctors), it has over the years chosen to focus its work in the African continent, hence the name ‘Doctors with Africa’. Via a central office in Italy and seven offices located across Africa, Doctors with Africa CUAMM is today present in seven African nations, with a total of 85 volunteers working on 32 different projects.
In Africa, many countries cannot guarantee essential services and treatment on their own, particularly in light of the enormous needs. Women still die at childbirth in the third millennium, unable to get to a hospital because it is too far or too expensive. Equal access to such services is one of the main challenges for those who believe in public health care, development and human rights.
As health workers, we are convinced that healthcare is not a consumer good but a fundamental human right. As such, it cannot be bought or sold. If health is a right, then access to healthcare services cannot be considered a privilege. And if health is truly a right, it is a duty to fight for this right to be recognised everywhere.
Through our cooperative projects, we mean to contribute to the independent and autonomous development of African populations, ensure that good quality healthcare services are open to all, and promote openness, understanding and friendship between different populations.
Our goal is to contribute to the rebirth – among both institutions and public opinion – of interest and hope in the future of Africa. We believe that these populations can rise up if they have faith in their own abilities and in the resources of their land. We hope and believe that the road towards development can be open to even the poorest areas of the planet.
Operating environment
In Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, Doctors with Africa CUAMM runs projects developed in conjunction with local bodies and performed in hospitals and other structures, predominantly in rural areas. The projects undertaken are strongly integrated with the healthcare culture and social tissue of the country, through a continuing dialogue with the local public authorities and religious institutions.
In each of these countries, projects aimed at specific areas (training, mother-and-child-care, disabilities etc), as well as so-called ‘vertical operations’ intended to provide direct intervention against the great pandemics (AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria) are supported by a broad range of well-established long-term programmes.
Programmes implemented in war-torn areas, or where humanitarian emergencies exist, which have only recently become part of the body’s operating environment, aim at the effective co-ordination of projects aimed at providing immediate assistance with longer term programmes.
Currently Doctors with Africa CUAMM has 32 principal projects, 85 field operators and numerous support initiatives, and is actively present in 20 hospitals and 14 public health care districts, and is involved in mother-and-child care, the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria; the organisation is also represented in six nursing schools and two universities.
It is a daily commitment, low profile but continuous, which aims at training people and reinforcing local institutions.
Doctors with Africa CUAMM is a story of cooperation among living people; it doesn’t ask for charity, only for justice and solidarity.
For more information please visit http://www.mediciconlafrica.org
Contact
Medici con l'Africa Cuamm
via San Francesco, 126
PADOVA Italy
Tel.: +39 49 8751279
Tel.2: +39 49 8751649
Fax: +39 49 8754738
E-mail: cuamm@cuamm.org
