Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Testimony of a Lifetime Volunteer

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes

"These Have Been 30 Years of Sharing"

BOORAMA, Somalia, SEP. 1, 2006 (Zenit) - Here we publish excerpts from a testimony written by Analena Tonelli on her experience of serving those most in need in Somalia.

* * *

My name is Analena Tonelli. I was born in Forli, Italy, on April 2, 1943.

I left Italy in January 1969. Since then I have lived serving Somalis. These have been 30 years of sharing.

I have almost always lived with the Somalis, first with the Somalis of northwest Kenya, and then with the Somalis of Somalia. I live in a world that is rigidly Muslim.

I lived for 15 years in Boorama in the extreme northwest of the country on the border with Ethiopia and Djibouti.

Two times a year, at Christmas and Easter, the bishops of Djibouti came to say Mass for me and with me.

I live alone because the companions of my journey, who together with the poor made my life a heaven on earth during my 17 years in the desert, left me after I was forced to leave Kenya.

That was in 1984. The government of Kenya tried to commit genocide against a tribe of nomads who lived in the desert.

They wanted to exterminate 50,000 people; they managed to kill 1,000. I managed to prevent the massacre from being carried to its completion. For this reason, I was deported a year later.

Some 16 years have gone by and the government of Kenya has publicly admitted its responsibility, has asked for forgiveness, and has promised compensation for the families of the victims.

At the time of the massacre I was arrested and brought before a military court. The authorities, all of them non-Somalis, all Christians, told me that they had arranged two ambushes which I providentially avoided, but that I would not have escaped another.

Then one of them, a Christian, asked me what had led me to behave in that way.

I replied that I did it for Jesus Christ who asks us to give our lives for our friends.

Tuberculosis

I live deeply immersed amongst the poor, the sick, and those whom nobody loves. I am largely concerned with the control and treatment of tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis was widespread in Somalia for centuries. It is thought that almost the whole of the population was infected.

Those with tuberculosis are put in a ward for hopeless cases.

I immediately began to study and to observe, and every day I passed with them, I served them on my knees.

In 1976 I was asked to become the head of a project of the WHO to deal with tuberculosis in the nomad population, a pilot project for the whole of Africa.

I was asked to invent a system to ensure that sick people received the anti-tuberculosis treatment every day for a period of six months.

I decided to invite the nomads to come to a piece of the desert in front of the Rehabilitation Center for the Disabled. We called it TB Mamyatta.

For six months the administration of the medicines was absolutely regular -- something that was almost a miracle for Africa.

At the end of six months the camels arrived and the whole caravan returned to the desert.

This program has since become the world policy of the WHO for the control of tuberculosis in the world, and is one of the best instruments by which to guarantee the compliance of the sick person with the treatment.

TB Mamyatta was a great adventure of love, a gift of God.

AIDS

Just think that in Borama, a center which has 50,000 inhabitants, we have diagnosed and treated 1,500 people suffering from tuberculosis each year, almost all of whom had positive sputum, above all during the early years.

We now have the problem of AIDS.

For three years now we have been seeing people with TB and AIDS, but the problem is spreading. We got down to 800 cases last year, but the presence of HIV is rapidly on the increase.

In a country like Somalia, in which tuberculosis is endemic, tuberculosis is the first opportunistic illness developed by people suffering from AIDS.

We are working very intensely to ensure that the population becomes aware of the problem and fights both internally and externally to make sure that patterns of behavior change, and that the spread of AIDS is checked.

I began five years ago with 30 beds and an increasing number of huts for the seriously ill who could not obtain a bed in a ward, until I had more than 200.

Today I have 200 beds, eight wards built by UNHCR for our people, a laboratory built by UNDP and almost 100 huts for those sick people who cannot find a place in their own village -- some come from far away, from Ethiopia, from Djibouti, from other parts of the country.

A school

In the TB Center we have opened schools for the patients and their friends.

Also, thanks to two obstetric nurses on my staff and two sheiks, we are engaging in a campaign in the region to eradicate the mutilation of female genitals and infibulation.

And it is also thanks to our staff that we have an eye camp twice a year. A team of eye specialists, friends of many years standing, come to the center.

Over a period of four days they operate on an average of 330 blind people, who suffer for the most part from cataracts.

During the last camp, which was held in August, they surpassed themselves. They restored sight to 450 blind people. The people are infinitely grateful for this service.

A school for deaf children had never been opened, nor one for blind children or mentally handicapped children. University professors did not believe that it was possible to educate a deaf child until they saw our school. Nobody thought it was possible.

In the meantime, people spoke increasingly about us, about the miracles that were occurring in our school. And thus it was that the High Commission for Refugees offered to build a real school for us.

In 1998 we built four classrooms, an office for the teachers, a small storeroom, and bathrooms. Then our friends of Forlě built two other classrooms, and some English Protestant friends, built three classrooms and two bathrooms, and then once again our friends from Forlě built another classroom. On the piece of land that the community gave us there is still room for another classroom.

A good mix

Over the last two years we have taken in 30 children belonging to a clan despised by the Somalis -- they work in iron, in leather, are barbers, and are hunters of small game.

They have never sent their children to school. They are ghettoized, their girls do not marry boys from other clans and their boys do not marry girls from other clans.

They are in rebellion against God and men because of their status of being the rejected, the despised and the marginalized. They are great workers.

Many of them were ill with TB and thus they had the opportunity to go to the school in the TB Center, and thus it was spontaneous for them to ask us to agree to educate their children.

It then happened that some intellectuals and then some rich people came to beseech us to accept their children in our school because it is a serious school, because in our school there is discipline, and because our teachers are committed, love teaching, love children, and are well trained. And we decided to accept them.

Today the school is a wonderful mixture of children from every background, with all kinds of personal histories, of every kind of capability.

Hundred fold

I have given a lot to the Somalis. I have received a lot from the Somalis.

The greatest value that they have given me, a value that I am still not able to live out, is that of an extended family, as a result of which, at least within the clan, everything is shared.

But the most extraordinary gift, the gift for which I thank God and them forever and for always, is the gift of my nomads in the desert.

They are Muslims and they have taught me to do everything, to be everything again, to work completely in the name of God.

And then life has taught me that my faith without love is useless.

Jesus Christ never spoke about results. He spoke only about loving us, about washing each other's feet, and about always forgiving.

The poor are waiting for us. The ways of serving are infinite and left to the imagination of each one of us.

_________________

The document appears in full on the Web site of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Ministry: www.healthpastoral.org

Contact

Catholic Online
https://www.catholic.org CA, US
Catholic Online - Publisher, 661 869-1000

Email

info@yourcatholicvoice.org

Keywords

Health, Volunteer, Tonelli, Somalia, Solidarity, Sharing

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

More Catholic PRWire

Showing 1 - 50 of 4,716

A Recession Antidote
Randy Hain

Monaco & The Vatican: Monaco's Grace Kelly Exhibit to Rome--A Review of Monegasque-Holy See Diplomatic History
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

The Why of Jesus' Death: A Pauline Perspective
Jerom Paul

A Royal Betrayal: Catholic Monaco Liberalizes Abortion
Dna. Maria St.Catherine De Grace Sharpe, t.o.s.m., T.O.SS.T.

Embrace every moment as sacred time
Mary Regina Morrell

My Dad
JoMarie Grinkiewicz

Letting go is simple wisdom with divine potential
Mary Regina Morrell

Father Lombardi's Address on Catholic Media
Catholic Online

Pope's Words to Pontifical Latin American College
Catholic Online

Prelate: Genetics Needs a Conscience
Catholic Online

State Aid for Catholic Schools: Help or Hindrance?
Catholic Online

Scorsese Planning Movie on Japanese Martyrs
Catholic Online

2 Nuns Kidnapped in Kenya Set Free
Catholic Online

Holy See-Israel Negotiation Moves Forward
Catholic Online

Franchising to Evangelize
Catholic Online

Catholics Decry Anti-Christianity in Israel
Catholic Online

Pope and Gordon Brown Meet About Development Aid
Catholic Online

Pontiff Backs Latin America's Continental Mission
Catholic Online

Cardinal Warns Against Anti-Catholic Education
Catholic Online

Full Circle
Robert Gieb

Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

Three words to a deeper faith
Paul Sposite

Relections for Lent 2009
chris anthony

Wisdom lies beyond the surface of life
Mary Regina Morrell

World Food Program Director on Lent
Catholic Online

Moral Clarity
DAN SHEA

Pope's Lenten Message for 2009
Catholic Online

A Prayer for Monaco: Remembering the Faith Legacy of Prince Rainier III & Princess Grace and Contemplating the Moral Challenges of Prince Albert II
Dna. Maria St. Catherine Sharpe

Keeping a Lid on Permissiveness
Sally Connolly

Glimpse of Me
Sarah Reinhard

The 3 stages of life
Michele Szekely

Sex and the Married Woman
Cheryl Dickow

A Catholic Woman Returns to the Church
Cheryl Dickow

Modernity & Morality
Dan Shea

Just a Minute
Sarah Reinhard

Catholic identity ... triumphant reemergence!
Hugh McNichol

Edging God Out
Paul Sposite

Burying a St. Joseph Statue
Cheryl Dickow

George Bush Speaks on Papal Visit
Catholic Online

Sometimes moving forward means moving the canoe
Mary Regina Morrell

Action Changes Things: Teaching our Kids about Community Service
Lisa Hendey

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Easter... A Way of Life
Paul Spoisite

Papal initiative...peace and harmony!
Hugh McNichol

Proclaim the mysteries of the Resurrection!
Hugh McNichol

Jerusalem Patriarch's Easter Message
Catholic Online

Good Friday Sermon of Father Cantalamessa
Catholic Online

Papal Address at the End of the Way of the Cross
Catholic Online

Cardinal Zen's Meditations for Via Crucis
Catholic Online

Interview With Vatican Aide on Jewish-Catholic Relations
Catholic Online

Pope Benedict XVI On the Easter Triduum
Catholic Online

Holy Saturday...anticipation!
Hugh McNichol

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.