16 Apr Happy Easter 2019 from Sister Laura
A very Happy Easter to you, our friends of long standing, and to our new friends who have just joined the Adwa family.
Only a few months have gone by since our Christmas message, but so much has been done. The school continues to proceed full speed ahead, chock full of the pupils who are the true meaning of all our hard work. The results achieved are still very good, as the children realise that education is the road away from poverty.
In February, Militè, the little girl who suffered a terrible car accident three years ago, suffered an intestinal blockage which could have killed her (as a result of the operations she had undergone). We rushed her to Bambino Gesù children’s hospital in Rome, where the doctors performed yet another miracle and saved her life once again. And do you know what she asked me for, when she was still suffering? She wanted to use a telephone to ask her classmates about the homework to be done in preparation for the examinations… “Sister Laura, if I don’t get better in time, will you give me a passing grade anyway?”
This is what our – and your – children are like!
The big news we want to share with you is the start of activities in the first wing of the hospital. We have obtained accreditation, with Dr. Giampaolo Fasolo as Chief Medical Officer. The group of doctors from Padua fitted out the wards with beds and all kinds of hospital equipment: a big job which has brought great satisfaction. Going into the first wards to be opened for the first healthcare campaigns is a joy to the eyes and above all a hymn to life, which is protected and cared for here, returned to families and society.
Following a tough educational programme in the classroom, our Ethiopian nursing students are full of enthusiasm and ready to face the challenges of everyday work in the hospital. Two more young Italian nurses are volunteering for three months, while Julia, who has volunteered over the past months, has decided to continue working at the hospital. Two Cuban doctors have already been hired, and we are waiting to get through the red tape involved in bringing them over. Anna, a biologist from San Raffaele hospital in Milan, has taken a year off work to set up a testing laboratory in our hospital.
We are now receiving plenty of requests from Ethiopian candidates for technical and medical positions in the hospital. And more and more patients come to the hospital every day, even though no official announcement has been made.
My friends, this is life asking to be allowed to go on, this is the Easter we are about to celebrate. And this “miracle” has been made possible by your fidelity, your confidence in our project, your love for these people whose only “fault” is that they were born in the wrong place. I can assure you that nobody here will be trying to get onto a boat to migrate illegally!
Sick people can neither study nor work; but with your help, the people of Adwa can now have food, healthcare and education. These are the essential foundations for acquiring professional skills that will guarantee a future for generations of Ethiopians. And this is the solution to the drama of illegal immigration, which costs billions of euros and produces an infinite amount of useless chatter inspired only by populism. In Adwa we are working to prevent this problem, with your help.
Thank you for being who you are, and may the Lord of Life, Crucified and Risen, THANK YOU: “…I was hungry… thirsty… I was sick…and YOU LOOKED AFTER ME”.
Loving wishes of a happy, healthy Easter from all of us here in Adwa!
Sister Laura
Many thanks for the translation to Joanne Roan