BURUNDI
HEALTH ACTIVITIES SUPPORT PROJECT
Health Centers
Regularly, at the beginning of each mission, we go to some of the health centres scattered throughout the country to carry out out outpatient services (visits, dressings, analysis and drug prescriptions, monitoring of operated patients) and to recruit any surgical patients to be sent to the Bubanza Hospital, which is our operational headquarters.
Two of these centers are located in the city of Bujumbura, the former capital, and precisely at the Nuns of Charity (Nuns of Calcutta) in the district of Rohero and at the dispensary of Kamenge; another center is located in Kiganda, located about 1,700 meters high along the route to Gitega, the current capital, the last is located in Bugwana, a beautiful location near the border with Rwanda and Tanzania, over 200 km from the hospital in Bubanza.
Diocesan Hospital of Bubanza
Hospital is located in the city of Bubanza, capital of the homonymous Province, 40 km north of Bujumbura, on the slopes of Kibira, a mountain range that crosses the country from north to south, and which was the refuge of the rebels during the civil war. It was built at the end of the 1970s by Swiss volunteers, and operated at full capacity until the outbreak of the civil war, which bloodied the country for over 10 years. It has been in regular operation since 2000.
It consists of two operating rooms, a gynaecology room with neonatology, a radiology room with fixed and mobile equipment, an oxygen distribution centre for operating theatres and wards, an analysis laboratory and a pharmacy, and has a capacity of about 160 beds. Since 2016 it has been equipped with a physiotherapeutic rehabilitation centre. Since September 2019 we have implanted an atelier for the construction and maintenance of prostheses and orthoses that we will provide free of charge to indigent people suffering from lower and upper limb handicaps due to malformations and amputations.
MADAGASCAR
HEALTH ACTIVITIES SUPPORT PROJECT
Health Centers
For about three years we have been carrying out regular visits and outpatient services in the health center located in the town of Vatolatsaka, located 130 km east of Toliara, reachable with difficulty, as the last 40 km are very bumpy track, which can only be covered with 4×4 off-road vehicles. Here we recheck the operated patients, make visits and send to the city people to be operated on or who need further diagnostic tests.
Saint-Luc Clinic
Is a private structure in Toliara with two small operating rooms, a radiology room without mobile devices, a pharmacy and a small analysis laboratory, and a capacity of about 60 beds, where we carry out out outpatient and surgical activities, essentially orthopaedic.
With regard to the project to support healthcare activities, both in Burundi and Madagascar, the Andare Oltre Foundation is responsible for the costs of purchasing consumables, implantable materials and prostheses, as well as all outpatient and hospital expenses for the indigent people visited and hospitalized.
PROJECT TO SUPPORT SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
Since 2015 we have started a project in Madagascar to support school activities in two areas of the country, where there are as many local associations that are our partners in this path. With the Loharano Association, based in Antananarivo (capital of Madagascar), we have built 4 classrooms of a secondary school in the village of Antsahanadrisa, Itasy Region, about 120 km east of the capital Antananarivo. The last two classrooms were inaugurated in November 2018. 
Currently they are attended by 88 students, who otherwise, due to the distance from the city, the difficulties of moving on non-existent roads and the high costs of transport and accommodation, would not have had any chance to continue their studies. We also pay a significant proportion of teachers’ salaries. The other Association with which we collaborate is called Radler, and is located in the city of Toliara, capital of the province of the same name, located in the extreme south of Madagascar, on the Mozambique Canal. It is certainly the poorest area in the whole country. Together with the Radler Association we have renovated four classrooms of a primary school, currently attended by 85 students, and we are building a semi-residential college where, once finished, one hundred secondary school students can be accommodated. We are also paying a large part of the teachers’ salaries in these facilities. We are also training and updating teachers, with courses held by expatriate staff.
Updated on 03 October 2019
Piero Petricca
