Today the Congregation is present in several countries such as Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Cameroon, Anizok- New guinea, Kinshasa – Zaire, Canada, Philippines, India, Poland, Albania, U.S.A, Mexico, Nigeria, Bolivia, Peru, South Korea where the members are actively rendering its service and living its dynamic charism responding the needs of the time and the Church.Many of these facilities are an expression of worldwide solidarity and fulfill welfare services in such places as, leper colonies, institutes for the handicapped, community centres for the mentally ill, shelters for families and children in need, secondary schools, assistance for homeless and street children, inhabitants of the Favelas, hospital facilities and counseling for the sick.
Below is a description of the some of the CFIC’s main projects currently in operation:
ALBANIA: In Albania the CFIC is currently working within the “Our Lady of Good Counsel” foundation (OLGCF) in Tirana.
1. The OLGC University began in 2004. Through a partnership made with several Italian universities (in Bari, Tor Vergata in Rome, Milan, and Bologna) for the transfer of “know how” and teaching activities the University has been sustained and supported and now consolidated its position and go on to develop a new pole of vocational training in a country undergoing profound transition and transformation. Today the OLGC University offers degree courses in Medicine and Surgery, Physiotherapy, Nursing Sciences, Pharmacy, Political and Economic Sciences.
2. The OLGC Hospital: More than 18 years have passed since the downfall of the Albania communist regime and during that time the CFIC was called upon to fulfill the mission of Mother Theresa of Calcutta with an arrangement between the Apostolic Nunciatures in Tirana and the Albania Government. Both the health service and the university consider the hospital as an example of concrete collaboration and a completion of their combined activity. This hospital was forecast to become a national referral facility for tertiary health care and a centre for specialist medical assistance. It is also looked upon as an experimental initiative in an otherwise public system. Initially the hospital had only four principle disciplines were present, Medicine, Paediatrics, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology but today its activity to include day hospitals and space dedicated to specialised medicine and surgery.
3. Padre Monte Outpatient Clinic, is based in Via Kavaja in the centre of Tirana. The qualified diagnostic and therapeutic services provided are thanks to the collaboration and contribution made by numerous health service and specialized professionals. Today the outpatient clinic also includes orthodontic care and rehabilitation and sports medicine services.
THE REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON: The congregation has been actively involved in the Republic of Cameroon since 1980 and below there is a list of their principle projects:
1. As a support for the Baka Pygmy Population: This project consists of a series of social, education and sanitary services provided for the tribes of the Baka Pygmies who live in camps in the equatorial rain forest in the southern part of the Cameroon (DJA and Lobo Departments).
2. The functional retrieval and rehabilitation of physically disabled children. The undertaking which favours the disabled is provided in two different scenarios. The children can be admitted to a home (up to about 200 at any one time) or they can be cared for at home in their village (up to 800 at any one time). These children live mainly in the southern provinces of Cameroon: Yqaoundè, Sangmelima, Ebolowa, Kribi. The services are mainly sanitary (searching for cases and disease prevention, therapy and care for the disabled and the preparation and provision of prosthesis and orthesis). Education (pre-schools and introduction to public schooling) and social (the involving of the families and institutions).Another important project is the school for the blind situated in the Promhandicam Association at Yaoundé. The Promhandicam is the non profit making body of the CFIC in the Cameroon and is an association for the social development of the disabled. Each year there are about 30 children/adolescence who attend this school and they are taught using Braille
3. The Social Development and Professional Training of disabled adults.
4. School and Colleges: a. Primary Schooling in Bamenda: There are three primary schools in this area which offer primary education to about 600 local children. b. The College St. Benoit and the College PereMonte are respectively a middle school and a secondary school the former is in the capital city of Yaoundé and the other in Nkolbikoko. They are about 4000 children at these schools, both primary and secondary education is available and each year the application numbers increase. The parents are given the opportunity to meet the teachers to discuss their child’s progress and problems and are actively encouraged to become involved in their child’s education and growth.
THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO
Kinshasa is the capital and has about 6 million inhabitants and the CFIC has many solidarity centres.
1. Centre de Santè “Ngondo Maria” The Ngondo Maria Centre is in Makala district of Kinshasa. It opened its doors on the 18th January 2006 to a local population of about 253,000. The health services are provided by a doctor and a team of nurses, the centre currently performs many different tasks. Over the years this health centre has made a significant contribution to health needs of the local population who in general live in poverty and general degradation. The congregation manages the health service facilities together with a local partner – L’OSPEOR (ŒuvreSociales Pour la Protection des EnfantsOrphelinsed de la Rue). They operate under an organizational cloak denominated Bureau Diocésain des OesuvresMédicales de L’Archidiocèse de Kinshasa (B.D.O.M.) which manages and coordinates the primary health care services of 25/35 of the health care areas in Kinshasa and provides between 20%– 25% of the daily requirements of Kinshasa.
2. The E. Stablum School (COFES): The city of Kinshasa has over the last ten years seen an enormous growth in population but this increase has not been complimented by an adequate growth in the socio-sanitary infra structure of the city and in many areas there is a complete lack of any type of schooling. Although this is a general condition which effects indiscriminately the whole of Kinshasa, it is especially evident in some of the peripheral and decaying areas of the city. One such area is Lemba Terminus where the “Collége Frère Emanuel Stablum is situtated. The school’s objective is to improve the fundamental rights of children, in particular the victims of social injustice and alienation and to provide them with primary care, to offer them of a basic education and prepare them to help themselves through an apprenticeship.
3. Community Centres and Psycho-Social Rehabilitation of orphans and abandoned children (FréreMaino Centre, Ngafula Mont, PereMonti Foyer in Kinshasa). The shanty towns on the outskirts of Kinshasa are squalid, overcrowded, very inaccessible and the inhabitants are mainly very young families, unemployed and poor. The infrastructure and public facilities in these areas are extremely inadequate and in particular there are no primary schools or health centres. Given the extreme poverty and sense of helplessness, boys are obliged at a very young age to do heavy manual work. The girls if lucky, help their mothers or look after smaller siblings, otherwise they end up on the street and become prey to sex marketeers.
The FréreMaino Centre and PereMonti Foyer are both family shelters and were set up to alleviate the conditions in these shanty towns. Their main tasks are to house and rehabilitate abandoned children and orphans both socially and psychologically, with the aim of reuniting them with their families. The centres are designed to assure these children the three fundamental human rights of, food and shelter for healthy growth, an education and healthcare.
The Republic of Equatorial Guinea
1. P. Monti School in Bata.:The congregation has a tradition in Equatorial Guinea through the DAR (DesarrolloAutonomo Rural) projects. The objective is to improve the living and health conditions of the local population, to promote hygiene, provide a basic education, to train and to support initiatives for local development. Activities are divided into 5 sectors, health, slum clearance, basic education, economic development and training. All sectors provide health education, basic disease prevention, the formation of a village health committee, the construction of latrines and showers, well digging and the maintenance of clean drinking water facilities. The DAR’s interventionist policy was to enhance the strength of the local population with adult literacy courses, the promotion of local manufacturing co-operatives and the formation of local development committees and then to provide the knowhow and experience needed for them to manage their own lives. The congregation was therefore able to focus its efforts entirely in the field of training and education and the PereMonti nursery school, primary and secondary schools were subsequently created in Bata. Bata is the second largest city in Equatorial Guinea with 70,000 in habitants and is considered to be the economic capital. However even with the presence of the congregation this area remains one of the more socially deprived in the country. This intervention had the purpose to provide basic training, which still remains one of the most lacking sectors in Equatorial Guinea.
NIGERIA
The Blessed Luigi Maria Monti Community: The recent international crisis has also invested Nigeria and the country has gradually fallen into financial and political instability. The people, especially those living in the rural areas and in the shantytown are paying the heavy consequences of this situation. Across the country the healthcare services and the social-healthcare are lacking.
The Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception (CSIC) is planning to provide a concrete solution to some of the problems arising in these areas, focusing mainly on healthcare and education. The main purpose of the project is to bear the boarding and lodging expenses of the children they host, as well as the costs required to ensure the basic hygienic conditions. This project aims at ensuring access to instruction and providing all the necessary teaching materials. Another purpose of the project is to facilitate children’s school attendance by bearing the costs for the school fees and transportation.
BRAZIL
The CSIC is based in Brazil in the town of Foz de Iguaçu, through the “Sociedade Civil NossaSenhoraAparedica” (acronym SCNSA). Several projects of social promotion are currently under way, both in the field of education and healthcare: the outpatient clinic, professional education with the university course in nursing, the Mae Maria pre-school, the Caja.
1) The outpatients clinic “NossaSenhoraAparecida”: This healthcare service started off with a small dispensary (called “posto de saùde” Padre Monti), to care for anyone in need. It included a small pharmacy that gave out free medicines to help the sick. Soon the “posto de saùde” became too small and insufficient to respond to the many requests for healthcare services. In the light of this, it was decided to build a new Outpatients Clinic dedicated to Madonna NossaSenhoraAparecida, the Patroness of Brazil. The Outpatients Clinic, designed in modules, includes a section for outpatients and a day hospital for mini-surgical operations, a section for diagnostics (Laboratory for chemical-clinical tests and an X-Ray Department, a section for the administration and a section for the wards. This health centre will be used by the local inhabitants with the aim to support the local health services by providing a proper facility with adequately trained staff, equipment and services to adequately meet the needs of the population and also offer the poor the chance to access the health services. As well as outpatients services, this health centre takes part in vaccination campaigns against AIDS, as well as to promote cancer prevention and also provide healthcare prevention for pregnant women.
2) University Course for Nurses: A university course to train nurses was set up, in collaboration with the State University UNIOESTE – the Foz do Iguaçu Campus –. Education is one of the key objectives of the Foundation: education is a gift to the person and an important contribution to the society. So, it is for this reason that the Congregation is enhancing its collaboration with the University to rise the level of education among the youth.
3) “Mae Maria” Nursery school: In the town of Foz, nursery schools are still missing. Children, especially those from the favelas, do not have a place where they can socialise due to the social and urban decay, so they are forced to go into the streets with all the negative consequences this entails.Offering them the opportunity to stay together and orient them to school, is a very important factor, both for themselves and their families.The “Mae Maria” Nursery school was opened in 1992, attended by pre-school age children (between age of four and six), coming from all the town and especially from the favelas. The educational activities and the pedagogic attention given to these children are fundamental, both to avoid the possibility that children leave school and that they end up living in the streets.
4) The Caja (Centre of Comprehensive Care for the Youth): CAIA (Centre of Comprehensive Attention for the Youth) collaborates with the Faculty of Nursing of UNIOESTE University. This Centre is open to all the youth of the barrio, as well as those from the surrounding barrios. CAIA offers the youth a complete program of social and healthcare support, taking into account the social, financial, cultural, religious, physical and mental aspects, in order to achieve their full development and reduce individual and social imbalances.
ARGENTINA
Integrated services for minors in the cities of Salta, Santa Fè and Tucman: The projects the CFIC is implementing in Argentina aim at reducing social vulnerability and at improving the life conditions of minors coming from the poorer layers of the population who have limited access to social-healthcare, educational and support services. The population’s needs and the demand for more attention are particularly increased by the serious financial, political and social crisis the country is going through and that has given rise to a generalized situation of emergency, including the lack of food which mainly impacts on children and the youth.
This project will ensure continuity and enhance – both quantitatively (higher number of beneficiaries) and qualitatively (more effectiveness and efficiency) – the services and the activities the CSIC has carried out for years in Argentina, in the Provinces of Salta, Santa Fè and Tucman, to help the most needful individuals.The activities (directly linked to these projects) involve two school and community canteens, a care home for minors, already set up and operating. These services are continuously required to respond to the needs of an increasing number of children and youth, both boys and girls (4-17 years) in a situation of serious social vulnerability, with little or no family support at all.
BOLIVIA
“Centro de Dia San José” at Santa Cruz de la Sierra: The project “Centro de Dia San José” was started in 2003 at Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the most populated city in Bolivia. It involves hosting – in the morning and in the afternoon – adolescents who need help, starting from the basic needs, such as eating at the social canteen, up to educational and social support activities. However, the increasing number of children seeking support from the Centro de Dia and the increasing demand for individual attention requires also a higher level of professionalism.Hence, the need to set up a day centre, fully entitled to carry out its mission, by adopting valid and validated models of reference, with more professionalism and efficiency.
This need principally stems from the local reaction, proving that it is instrumental and necessary to transform an informal facility into a professional and organized facility in all its aspects, but above all from an administrative, managerial and organizational point of view.
PERU’
The Community Centre “Maria Estrella de la Montanas”: The Community Centre aims at improving the social-cultural and recreational conditions of minors and young Peruvians, in the city of Santa Eulalia, Province of Huarochiri, Region of Lima, Perù.
The project, called “S.O.S. Niños” is located in the urban area of Santa Eulalia, with the building of a new structure devoted to social, educational and rehabilitation activities to help children and youth of the campesinos communities in “Valle de Santa Eulalia”, which extends from 1036 metres above sea level up to 4500 metres above sea level. In the Valle there are 21 “campesinos” communities. There is only one road (carretera) that links all the pueblos. This is a dirt and soil road, very tortuous and runs along the sheer-falling sides of the mountains, with deep precipices, difficult to drive along, especially during the rainy season, that goes from December to April. The youth who become part of the “S.O.S. Niños” Project, take part in the various “campesinos” communities. The purpose of this centre is to provide a point of reference especially for the youth of the so-called “zonabaja” (low zone) of Cuspanca, Parca Alta, etc., who live close to the Centre. They obtain support for their school and social activities. Some of them are either fatherless or motherless, others are orphaned, but not because their parents are no longer alive, but simply because they have been abandoned, or because their father drinks, while others live with their grandparents. Most of them live in shanties, made with staw mats or similar vegetable materials, where essential services, including water and electricity are missing. Unlike the minors and the youth living in the “zonabaja”, the youth living in the so-called “zonaalta” of Jicamarca, Collata, Chaclla, Laraoz, Vicas and Huanza, lead a completely different life. The majority breed the cattle belonging to their own family, and pasture the animals, walking for several kilometers across the mountains, as well as to go to school and to get back home. These also live in conditions of extreme poverty, as well as lack of affection. Often, their only occasion to socialize is the religious ceremonies, which are often held only occasionally, or catechesis (Sunday School) which in any case reflects the poor cultural level of the teachers.
In this context, the purpose of the “S.O.S. Niños” Project is to reach out to other possible people in need, by means of support at a distance, because settlements are often far away from one another and it is not easy to physically meet the minors and the youth, this becomes a key tool that would allow to provide them the help they need (food, clothing, school materials).
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