"Vet For Africa", an ACLI-affiliated club, was born from the experience of solidarity that, since 2003, some students and teachers of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Bologna have been carrying on in Hanga, a small village in southern Tanzania. "A cup of milk for the children of Hanga" is the original name of the project, which over time has expanded with several other initiatives, both in Africa - in Tanznia and in Eritrea - and in Bologna.
Among these, there is the project that involves two African boys applying for international protection: after having been trained by the veterinarians of the Alma Mater, today they basically manage the herd of goats of the Alma Mater Department of Medical Veterinary Sciences independently. The milk that is produced then goes to the "Fontanelli Guglielmo" farm that transforms it into the "Dozza" District House of Bologna.
Another project by Vet For Africa is that of the solidarity farm "Cà Sabbioni". Thanks to a co-financing of Carisbo and with a loan requested under the Rural Development Plan of the Emilia Romagna region, the association aims to recover a farmhouse in the hills of Ozzano Emilia, in the province of Bologna. The new solidarity farm is designed to offer disadvantaged people the opportunity to participate in activities with animals and in agriculture. In particular, there is the objective of starting an incubator for social enterprise activities on agriculture and animal husbandry that involve migrants and asylum seekers.
Among its activities in Italy, Vet For Africa also organizes seminars, conferences and meetings designed to sensitize students (and others) on problematic issues such as international cooperation, conservation medicine, the spread of more or less forgotten diseases (leprosy, AIDS, tuberculosis), conflicts, authoritarianism and democracies in Africa, land grabbing, female genital mutilation, and the situation in prisons.
But Vet For Africa does not stop there. The next project, named "Le manine di Teodato", takes the name of the thirteen year old Teodato, who arrived in Italy from Tanzania in early November for a delicate hand operation. At the age of three he put his hands in the brazier, causing deforming and highly penalizing injuries. Thanks to the generosity of many, he will be admitted to the Pederzoli hospital in Peschiera del Garda and will soon undergo surgery performed by Dr. Ruggero Testoni.
(in Italian)
