In recent days – which have been marked by the departure of Fr. John Toai for Liberia, of Fr. Aris Miranda for Sierra Leone and the joint round table of Catholic humanitarian associations held at the generalate house – we have been particular sensitised to the Ebola emergency in Africa which is afflicting in an especially dramatic way Sierra Leone, Guinea Conakry and Liberia.

From a diagnosis and comparison of the objective data collected in the field and from the testimonies of those who already work in the field, a rather dramatic picture has emerged. This dramatic aspect is connected with the ‘broth’ that Ebola has generated and which makes one perceive that Ebola is only a terrible aggravation of a more complex situation made up of long civil wars, corruption, and rapid changes in political leadership (in three months there have been the same number of Ministers of Health in Sierra Leone!) in and civil and religious leadership.

This has led to the collapse – under the huge impact of the massive spread of Ebola – of a health-care system that was already very fragile and unprepared for the situation – even lacking primary equipment for the first diagnostic screenings for contagion which allow a first form of assessment and prioritisation of patients. All of this has been aggravated by the fact that Ebola is severely hitting not the traditional rural areas but the great and densely inhabited urban centres.

In this catastrophic mix of negative elements, people are dying of Ebola but at the same time people are dying of malaria and at childbirth (because of the fear of infection and because they do not have the instruments for a rapid diagnosis of contagion – paradoxically! – the few hospitals that do exist have been closed and thus the number of deaths caused by endemic tropical diseases has increased in an exponential way and access to basic treatment and vaccines, which cost a few dollars, remains a mirage for the majority of the population); people are dying of hunger (the curfew and other initiatives such as the cordon sanitaires tend to reduce the movements of people to a minimum in order to contain the possibility of infection but the outcome of these decisions is that the provision of basic supplies becomes more difficult; the change of goods has slowed down and inflation which usually flames up during moments of crisis is leading to a vertiginous increase in prices); and people are dying because of ignorance (at a social level what is needed is work involving constant sensitisation in communities, even the most remote ones, so that everybody is aware of the risks, of how the virus can be identified, and what recommendations should be followed in order to prevent it – in this sphere religious leaders are invited to use their natural authority in order to inform people, make people know about the situation, and create a minimum of health-care education and prevention).

If this is the diagnosis – albeit of a very summarising kind – of the situation, various areas of intervention can be derived from it for our Institute, being realistically aware, however, of our limitations in terms of human resources, logistical and organisational resources, and technical equipment.

In practical terms, after the first exploration carried out by our religious brother Fr.

John Toai in Freetown in Liberia, the General Consultor Fr. Aris Miranda left for the diocese of Makeni in Sierra Leone as an initial response to the appeal of Fr. Natale Paganelli, the Apostolic Administrator of that ecclesial unit.

The initiative is organised at three levels: 1. support for an assessment of whether the conditions exist for a reopening – with a minimum guarantee of safety for the patients and the health-care workers – of the diocesan Holy Spirit Hospital; 2. support for ecclesial activity with the offer of help in terms of pastoral care and counselling for a frightened population and one for whom fear is a generator not only of anxiety but also of imprudent attitudes which run the risk of exposing it to further risks (witnesses talk about ‘pseudo-religious’ preaching that invites people to see Ebola in terms of a punishment by God in line with the well known logic of the pseudo-friends of Job); and 3. concrete support activity for the local communities in terms of the taking in of an ever increasing number of children who are orphans, and to achieve increasing food security.

This diagnosis and the concrete project involving the offer of aid by a small Camillian Task Force which is being organised and taking form around certain religious brothers, calls on all Camillians for a contribution to a renewed sensitivity to this emergency. As some people have already observed, it seems to take us back to the dawn of our Order, to the root of our charism with the simple and tough implementation of our fourth religious vow.

Ospedale di Makeni in Sierra Leone

Our task – I believe! – is the involvement of the good will and the support of this small Camillian advance party through the powerful intercession of prayer to the Lord Jesus, asking him to protect the physical and motivational wellbeing of these religious brothers of ours and of all the men and women of good will who will back them up with their professional skills. And also asking him to ensure the animation and sensitisation of the friendly or ministerial spaces that we inhabit to achieve the practical goal of obtaining economic resources not only to meet this specific urgent need but also to lay solid bases for concrete development projects at a local level, above all when the noise of the mass media, and the floodlights, are no longer directed towards these tormented regions of our planet!

An opportunity for charismatic animation for our religious and ecclesial communities – starting with the format of a ‘small ship’s log of the religious and volunteers involved in the field – prayers and fund raising…will make us feel in a more convinced way citizens of the world, understood not as an ‘opaque atom of evil’ (G. Pascoli, X August) or ‘the flower bed that makes so ferocious’ (Dante, Paradise XXUU, 151), but in terms of us being co-workers of that lovable land loved by God who still today never tires of looking at it, and looking at us, to see signs in it and in us and thus to be able to say again: ‘God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased’ (Gen 1:31)!

Fr. Gianfranco Lunardon

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