avsi TENTS 2007–2008

Stories of another world,
within this world

AVSI’s “Tent Campaign” 2007-2008 is entitled, “Vicky: Stories of Another World, Within This World.” The cue for the title comes from a letter from Vicky herself, published in Traces (Vol. 8, No. 8 September 2007). Vicky is a Ugandan HIV-positive mother of three children, who was taken into the Meeting Point International in Kampala. The projects to be supported for the 2007 Campaign, besides Golubka House, described in these pages, are:

1 Uganda
Meeting Point International, Kampala
The Meeting Point International (MPI) is a Ugandan NGO which works in shantytowns in Kampala, particularly Naguru and Kireka Acholi Quarter. Its main task is caring for AIDS sufferers and their orphans. MPI is a presence, a companionship, a point of reference for social focus and involvement. MPI’s facilities and activities are the instruments for an experience that fosters an awareness of the value of people’s lives and enhances their ability to confront reality as protagonists, while helping to recreate the community’s social fabric.

2 Brazil
Educational Work in Belo Horizonte
The “Creche Gilmara Íris,” a nursery and kindergarten, comprises a set of 9 educational structures for children called the “Obras educativas Padre Giussani,” founded by Rosetta Brambilla in the 1980s. The Christmas Tents Project 2007–2008 is intended to support the opening of a kindergarten for 20 children and its functioning for about a year, after which time it will qualify for funding by the City Hall of Belo Horizonte, through the “Secretria De Educação,” for the maintenance of an educational service for children and families living in low-income areas.

3 Ivory Coast
St. Camille Catholic Hospital of Bouaké
St. Camille Hospital in Bouaké, ivory Coast, is a Catholic non-profit institute founded in 1998 by the St. Camille association. This health facility has recently begun to provide AIDS treatment. The association has just built a new center for the lodging, care, education, and vocational training of women and children in Belleville, one of the poorest outlying suburbs in the city of Bouaké. This center is a beacon of hope for a region that has always suffered from a multiplicity of public health problems. The St. Camille Foundation is seeking financial support to improve training in the health assistance sector, strengthen counseling services, and extend the day hospital.