A new Mission in Chaaria

In 1983 indications on where to start the new mission were sought from the Bishop of Meru, Mons Silas Njiru, who suggested the brothers to purchase a plot within the rising Chaaria Parish, where a small market was also located, at about 20 kilometres from Meru town. It was a semi-arid area inhabited by a few number of families, almost all of them farmers.

At Chaaria, a Chapel already existed; it was a branch of a rather distant Parish. The premises of a small dispensary also existed, which had been built through the peoples financial contribution, but that Dispensary had never been activated.

Gradually, the Brothers moved to the Chaaria Cottolengo rising centre.

Brother Lodovico was in charged of the planning and setting up of the new community, on top of the building of a house for the mentally handicapped people and the activation of the existing dispensary.

In July 1993, Chaaria Centre was empowered with building of staff quarters with 4 apartments for the nurses employed in the dispensary.

On the 19^th January 2002, two Cottolengo Sisters were sent to Chaaria to open a satellite

community and to work alongside the Brothers.

The service of Chaaria Cottolengo Centre

Dispensary.

Chaaria Catholic Dispensary started its service in August 1984. Its activity served an area

of about 20 kilometers square, in a developing semi-arid area, with a high growing

population, at about 20 kilometers from Meru.

At the beginning the service was opened 6 days per week and saw an average attendance

of 200 patients per day. Since its inception, along with the therapy for various tropical diseases, the dispensary offered prevention either by vaccinating the children or through the periodic visits for the pregnant women.

From 1993 the ‘Mobile clinic’ service was a reality; it had the aim of reaching out to the patients who live in remote areas. In the arranged days, some Staff of the Dispensary left

the Centre and went to some distant villages where it had been organized a day of therapy

and prevention, carried out in the premise of a Chapel, which had proved fit for the purpose. Brother Maurice Scalco was the coordinator of that activity and Brother John Bosco helped as driver.

From the Dispensary to the Hospital

Chaaria healthcare service, offered by Cottolengo Centre, at its inception was carried out

in the form of Dispensary.

In the last 10 last years such a service has undergone a profound change both in style and

in structure having been upgraded to the rank of Cottage Hospital.

Nowadays, the Hospital is endowed with 140 beds, but during emergency situations

the patients’ admittance has exceeded the number of 160.

How did this transformation happen?

In 1998 Brother Beppe Gaido came to Chaaria; he is a physician whose presence has allowed the Dispensary to offer more important services.

It was felt at once the need of having some beds at disposal, in order to monitor those patients who, after the first check-up, were too sick to be discharged home.

With passing time the physician’s presence has drawn an ever increasing number of outpatients, bearers of the most varied pathologies, often marked by emergency; it is enough to consider that in the first semester of the year 2003 the daily attendances had already reached the number of 450.

The consequence of this crowding has been the need to admit several sick people (in-patients).

With the years the patients attending our Centre have become evermore seriously ill and in need of intensive treatments.

To prevent people from dying at the gate, we have progressively activated some services formerly non existent (maternity, blood transfusion, gynaecology, traumatology and surgery). Such services have been implemented without following a prearranged plan, but trying to answer the sick people’s needs, thinking that St. Joseph Cottolengo himself would have acted in such a manner.

We have evermore become a referral centre for people who, after having tried unsuccessfully to be cured in other healthcare units, have decided to come to us. This fact often brings desperate cases to us (children who die as soon as they are admitted to hospital, perhaps after their mother has shouldered them for a 12-hour walk under sun), neglected meningitis, etc.

Besides, the Hospital cares also for a certain number of orphans, from birth to around 6 months of life; they are the sons of women who died at the moment of delivery, either in our Hospital, or in neighboring facilities.

From 1991 is active a dental service.

We have a good laboratory.

On top of that we are able to do ultrasound and digestive endoscopy.

A physiotherapy department was started by Bro Lorenzo Gambalonga: it is a very important sector with good facilities, where we take care of people with different ailments: stroke, paraplegia, hemiplegia and cerebral palsies.

Bro Giancarlo Chiesa is the administrator of the Mission as a whole, and Sr Florence is the hospital Matron.

The hospital offers daily prayers for the staff and for the patients. Every Sunday the Mass for the in-patients is celebrated in the premises of the Hospital, while a monthly Mass is celebrated for hospital staff alone.

The Parish priest avails himself for the pastoral care of the patients and for the administration of the sacraments whenever he is called upon.

Service to the mentally disabled

This service is at the moment managed by Brother Roberto Trappa, who is helped by Bro Robert Maina, local staff and expatriate volunteers. Bro Joseph Muchiri follows is in charge of the pastoral care. Two Cottolengo Sisters (Sr Cecilia and Sr Joan) cooperate with the Brothers in the running of the Centre.

The Home shelters 50 Clients and it is filled to its capacity.

Apart from the daily, domestic services, the Home assures educational support in the form of a special school, and occupational activities. Sisters are in charge of the above departments.

Other forms of socialization are represented by some kind of games carried out during the leisure time, or by short outings.

Students or parish groups, led by teachers or clergymen, often visit the Home. Almost all the Clients need physiotherapy rehabilitation.

Before the opening of the Hospital, the healthcare service had always been carried out by

the Brothers, as it is still done today.

But now, the presence of the Hospital staff, 24 hours per day, is a guarantee for an immediate intervention, whenever a Client of the Home might need it.

All the pathological cases for the inmates of the Home are treated at the site, while time ago the complicated malarial outbursts needed refer to another hospital.

Each Wednesday a Mass is celebrated for the inmates able to understand, in the Chapel of the Brothers’ Community.

On every Saturday the Sunday Mass is celebrated, where a short homily is also delivered.

Moreover, every day a Sister leads the prayer of the rosary.

Bro Beppe Gaido

Brothers and Sisters in Chaaria