News fromLacor Photo: Seamus Murphy - Getty Images Murphy Photo: Seamus Heroes of yesterday and today 2020 | N.4 YEAR XVI NOVEMBER TEASDALE-CORTI FOUNDATION FOR LACOR HOSPITAL EDITORIAL Dr. Venice Omona, Head of the Children's Ward BEING A HERO MEANS... Dear friends, STRUGGLING WITH SCARCE RESOURCES TO TAKE CARE OF PATIENTS just a year ago we were celebrating Lacor’s first 60 years together. though, I am frustrated, as I don’t feel Today we gently tiptoe in your homes, Our doctors, I have done enough. Then I realize to remind you that we are here, that nurses and that the limitations of my country are we keep going, that neither you nor midwives to blame. Limitations in diagnostic, we are alone. at Lacor are heroes. in available treatments, in being The alliance we started in Uganda able to follow up with a patient after many, many years ago, has been They represent an examination. strengthened into a deep friendship. the Africa that And the challenge becomes even During these times that are so full studies, works, harder if we go out of my hospital and of trouble for everyone, donors from strives to excel look at Uganda as a health system. across the world have received with what they Lack of medicines, structures, staff, messages of solidarity from Lacor. have. to the point where patients don’t get We have witnessed examples of an examination because too few are resilience, the art of adapting to And does not available. As a doctor, I am not in the hardship, and even examples of give up. position to do my job as I'd wish for. heroism. This issue of News from Despite this, I keep trying my best: I Lacor brings you stories of the heroes Dr. Emmanuel Ochola, epidemiologist, Head of Department tell my patients how to prevent the of yesterday and today, together for HIV, Research and Documentation most widespread diseases, and I often with the most heartfelt Christmas find myself reaching into my pockets greetings. May it be a year of health Let us enter Lacor Hospital’s gates differences. In one place, doctors so that the patient can eat and buy and serenity, both here and at Lacor. and see it with new eyes. It is a huge, can rely on cutting edge diagnostic some medicine. I have organized From everyone at the Corti 500-bed structure, and cares for 250 investigations and readily available initiatives to improve the quality of Foundation, Merry Christmas and thousand patients each year. It is as if drugs. In the other, physicians must care we offer, I have marched through Happy 2021. the whole city of Verona was in need fight diseases mainly through their the city asking people to give support of care. The difference is that Italy clinical skills and a basic supply for the health of our youngest, and I Daniela Condorelli counts almost 40 doctors for every system that seems to come in only took advantage of every opportunity Head of Communications ten thousand people, while Uganda drop by drop. to appeal to people’s generosity”. Fondazione Corti, Italy has less than two. Indeed, this African Are these doctors, these nurses, Opportunities like this one. country is one of the 26 countries in heroes? We’ll let you decide after the world that still faces the illnesses hearing the words of Dr. Emmanuel of poverty with less than three Ochola: “The most painful thing doctors for every thousand people. P. 3 BEING A HERO MEANS... is that our children mostly suffer from preventable illnesses. Simple STRUGGLING WITH SCARCE RESOURCES In Uganda, for every hundred Donate 45 TO TAKE CARE OF PATIENTS thousand births, 375 mothers die and diseases, which are often fatal. Like € 48 children out of one thousand never malaria, pneumonia or infections to contribute P. 4 BEING A HERO MEANS... reach the age of five. To understand that in Western world are far from RAISING SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILDREN being harmful. to admission TO GIVE THEM A FUTURE the magnitude, in Italy only four women die in childbirth out of every It is painful to admit, but these are the of a child with P. 7 BEING A HERO MEANS... hundred thousand, and three children evils that kill our babies. As a doctor, pneumonia GIVING ONE'S OWN LIFE FOR OTHERS of every thousand births will not make my heart fills with joy when I can help it to their 5th birthday. Incredible P. 10 AND THEN THERE IS YOU a child recover and smile again. Often P. 12 HOW TO HELP 2 3 BEING A HERO MEANS... 18, sometimes 20 children need a blood transfusion each day. It's the first time Dr. Venice donates his blood. “What made me do it? Having to see one or two children dying every day for lack of blood. With just my donation I will save two or three lives. Blood should not be bought or made. It should be donated”. If someone who saves lives is a hero, then one who donates blood is a hero. Dr. Venice Omona, Head of the Children's Ward Milly Atoo, Executive Secretary Agnes, Health Educator RAISING SOMEONE ELSE'S CHILDREN TO GIVE THEM A FUTURE Many of our nurses and midwifes they will be able to guarantee food Italian and how to format letters, but would have never grown up.” Resilience is at home in Lacor are the sole wage-earner in their and education for children in their also to believe in myself. “What do you It was probably the first loan from Resilience, the ability to take a has shown that northern Uganda’s family and they work hard to pay communities, it is vital that the Corti want for your future?” He used to ask what would later become the Hospital blow without breaking, to adapt and young people have characteristics not only their own children’s school Foundation keeps believing that the me… and he would add “go after it with Loan Cooperative which was founded fees, but also those of the extended hospital’s running costs are the most everything you have”. He offered me thrive despite traumatic and deep such as self-esteem, discipline and in 1997 and has since loaned more changes. It is a word well suited to a developed social network that family: orphans or children whose essential donation. one of the small apartments inside than 6 million Ugandan shillings Lacor and to the staff’s strength in helps strengthen their resilience. parents are sick or unemployed. What the hospital where many employees Women and men employed at Lacor (more than ,3 million euros), allowing responding to challenges, both in we consider as an exceptional or Even the widespread often bear an additional burden with lived, but I refused. thousands of people the chance to the past and today. extreme generosity, here is common entrepreneurial creativity seems resourcefulness. During the weekend One day I picked up the courage to buy some land, build their own house “The tenacity, the determination to have been a key element for occurrence. Solidarity is extended or early in the morning before work, ask him for a loan of 300 thousand or send their children to school to give and the will to not give up that recovery after the war. A vast to the entire village and to the almost everyone goes to their fields Ugandan shillings (about 70 euros). Dr. them a better future. people of North Uganda have array of business ideas flourish, community, maybe emphasized by to dig and care for their crops. Corti spoke in Italian with Sister Lina, shown in the face of extraordinary mostly aimed at paying school the misery of the war. Agnes, a health educator, grows the Comboni nun that at the time was hardship and suffering have been fees, an investment on the future the subject of studies”, explains that comes with great sacrifices. Every employee at Lacor supports and sells peanuts. With resolve and both matron and tutor, who asked me Thomas Molteni, internal auditor Furthermore, the strong bonds of seven or eight children with their commitment she has built a brick and to follow her and gave me the money. at the hospital. “One of these was solidarity that characterize the salary, which is about 120€ a month mortar house next to the hut where Every month I would have to give back ECDPM’s Resilience and high local culture are an essential social for a nurse. Ensuring coverage of the 40 thousand shillings”. Donate 120 € she used to live, and where she now performance amidst conflict,capital that fosters economic hospital’s recurrent expenses which raises her nephews and other girls Later Dr. Corti told me that I was the epidemics and extreme poverty: The growth. The countless loan schemes includes salaries, but also medicines for the monthly who are relatives. first woman to ask for a loan to build Lacor Hospital, northern Uganda that coexist within the community and functioning diagnostics is salary of a nurse The story of Milly, executive secretary a house. Three months later I showed and showed the ability to face are but one example. Resilience therefore crucial. in Lacor, is meaningful: “In 1996 I him pictures of my new house and I difficult situations in a collective itself is a strong indicator of future To help Lacor’s staff face the was Dr. Piero Corti and Dr. Lukwiya’s told him “doctor, this is why I refused and innovative way”. Other research development. difficulties, feeling confident that secretary.