The great challenge

SAINT ANTHONY’S Charities’ 2001 balance sheet shows that 117 projects were financed in 32 countries across the world at a total cost of $ 1,924,000 (E 2,220,000) This is a record figure compared to last year’s accounts in which 103 projects were financed at $ 1,480,000 (E 1,700,000). This shows that the co-operation and support of the readers of the Messenger of Saint Anthony’s for Saint Anthony’s Charities greatly increased in 2001, allowing us to fulfil goals which were previously unthinkable. We are very happy to receive your greatly appreciated support and proud of your faith in us; the credit goes to you, dear readers, for helping us assist thousands of people world-wide, in the name of Saint Anthony. As director of Saint Anthony’s Charities, I sincerely thank you all, not only in the name of the other friars, but above all on behalf of the people you are helping with your unfailing and generous support.

AIDS campaign

The balance sheet is exceptional this year for another reason. As well as the traditional projects helping children, mothers and families, we increased our work in an area which was previously out of our reach, owing to the very high costs involved and the complex nature of the situation: the battle against AIDS in the Third World. According to the estimates of UNAIDS (a United Nations aid agency), 40 million people are infected world-wide, more than 28 million of these live in Sub-Saharan Africa. In these infected areas, the majority of the infected people are aged between 15 and 49 years old and will die within 10 years if they fail to receive adequate treatment. A high number of parents, grandparents uncles and aunts will thus die, leaving behind millions of orphans, many of whom are also sick.
We receive letters every day from missionaries which are increasingly desperate. They speak of orphaned children with only a few days left to live, infected mothers slowly dying yet managing to give birth to their last child, grandparents left with 20 hungry little ones to feed and sick orphans left to their own devices. Sister Sabina, a missionary in Zambia once declared, We have to stop looking at the statistics, they don’t tell us anything about the pain and the loneliness... these are people, not numbers!
We, at Saint Anthony’s Charities felt more and more troubled about the AIDS epidemic every day. But it wasn’t easy to quickly find a suitable solution.

A difficult path

We decided to concentrate our resources above all on the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa where there was no sanitary system nor trained personnel. AIDS had crushed the few professionals that the country had. Even the most basic medicine was lacking. How could we cure AIDS in countries in which children were still dying of measles, an easily avoidable disease thanks to vaccines costing as little as $1?
There were other complications: in order to launch a huge campaign comprising of information and a cure for AIDS, we needed to work with the relevant governments and therefore have the right contacts. Furthermore, only the governments could negotiate with the pharmaceutical houses knockdown prices of certain medicines.

The three projects of June 2001

Among the various chosen projects, one was a real attempt to find a way of fighting the battle against AIDS in Africa. It was suggested to us by the St. Egidio Community, an international public lay organisation whose headquarters are in Rome, which received the Saint Anthony’s International Award (witness category) in 1998. The community’s contribution to the ending of the civil war in Mozambique was fundamental and now it is determined to help this country in the fight against AIDS. The project is based on the observation that administering the new anti-AIDS medicine to HIV-positive pregnant women obtained two important results: the children are born healthy and the mothers can continue living for several years, thus ensuring that their newly-born children and their siblings have a greatest chance of survival. The method to reach this goal was even more interesting: the re-creation of a basic sanitary system in the country through the resurrection of three large hospitals (one in the north, one in the centre and one in the south) and the training of an adequate number of hospital staff. All this would become a heritage for the entire country, not just in the fight against AIDS, but also for the cure and prophylaxis of other diseases. The Mozambique government undertook the task to deal with the pharmaceutical houses and obtaining medicine at reasonable prices. Saint Anthony’s Charities obviously was unable to provide funding for the entire project, but it agreed to re-construct the hospital in Matola (in the poorest area of the country in the north) and to provide prophylaxis and treatment for 335 mother-child couples at a cost of about $ 225,000 (E 258,000). Our contribution helped to kick-start the entire project which is now supported by other organisations and is already bearing its first fruits.
The second project is more aid-centred. It is being undertaken in Ndola, in Zambia and was recommended by the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi who have looked after orphans with AIDS for years. This project involves the construction of family homes to welcome children who have been completely abandoned because they not only are they orphans because of AIDS, but they too have contracted the disease and are victims of discrimination, since AIDS is seen as being a shameful disease. Love, treatment and a more suitable diet help them to live for years, and, hopefully, until a definite cure has been found. This entire project cost $ 225,000 (E 258,000).
The third project took place in Santo André, in Brazil, a country less affected by AIDS with respect to Sub-Saharan Africa. We chose this project as we realised that while new drugs are administered for free, an adequate health system and medical personnel are lacking. The ill person is thus left to his or her means and dies all the same. This project was suggested as a model to be extended and involves a family home run by volunteers and Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Assisi who welcome HIV-positive mothers and their children, assisting them not only with regard to their state of health, but also in their social rehabilitation. In this case, we donated $ 123,000 (E 142,000) for the reconstruction of an old building.

Future choices

I haven’t described our new ventures here as it is only fair, when a world-wide family like our own begins to offer assistance, that we explain every aspect, both the worries and the joys. This does not mean that we will abandon everything that we have achieved up until now. Our balance sheet is a witness to this. We are still however, more than willing and ready to continue the battle against AIDS, to avoid feeling that we haven’t played our part or that we were frightened by the challenge that lay ahead. St. Francis and St. Anthony have invited us to accept challenges and to believe in a utopia. We must remember this, even when the road is long and hard.