Thinking that the problem of schooling for poor children can be solved only with school supplies is misleading. It is true that we cannot solve all problems alone, but in the case of Fonsramé and Agbanu, while a teacher was reading the letter of thanks during the delivery ceremony, we asked ourselves if we had really done everything possible for them. During that official thanksgiving, the fact was underlined that the children who today have everything they need for proper learning are very attentive, curious and eager to learn. Without their books and notebooks, they were considered by everyone to be disturbing elements and also had undisciplined attitudes. It really takes very little to bring out the qualities of those children: they just need to have the tools for learning and the metamorphosis immediately occurs. But what touched us the most was when they told us that some of them do not even have 150 F. (0.25€) a day to eat something during recess. While everyone goes to the vendors to get their meal, they wander disconsolately among the school desks, a little apart out of shame and anxiously waiting for lessons to start again so they can join the others without distinction. But some have full bellies, others perhaps haven't even had breakfast before going to school. Along with the satisfaction of having managed to provide school supplies, we were left with a bitter taste in our mouths for not having been able, at the time, to guarantee a daily meal to those who really needed it. Then Providence - which always has a name and surname - arrived! So we took action to identify, through a careful investigation, the children who are not in a position to eat the bare minimum daily, we contacted the vendor cooks, drafting with them a contract to supply meals for 28 children until the end of the school year. Payment in advance at the beginning of each month. Each child has his or her own bowl with lid and spoon and a personal badge with photo that allows the vendors to recognize them and provide the meal. The ingredients are agreed upon and varied to ensure a balanced diet of rice, pasta, tomato/onion sauce and fish. Alternatively polenta, tomato and chilli sauce, beans and meat.

For this operation we have allocated about €1000, already financed. The first day was yesterday, after returning from the holidays of the saints. Today I went with Ibrahim Abou to check that the children were fully satisfied. The photos from this morning confirm it.

This morning too, we were busy delivering 61 other school kits for the same number.

of children from the schools of Agbanu and Fonsramé. These 61 schoolchildren, who distinguished themselves by a high

profit, were among the 127 orphans to whom we gave the opportunity to go to school

last year, without having the means. Since our means are also limited, we have some

rewarded a party that stood out for having worked better than the others. We rewarded

merit. This experiment began this year and will make it possible to support more and more

students from many other schools, then trigger this virtuous mechanism that allows them to

advance in your studies knowing that we must work hard to achieve ours

support that can promote cultural and intellectual development to levels of excellence. We thank you

the school principals, present this morning at the delivery ceremony, who helped us

in identifying the best guys. Thanks as always to Ibrahim, who coordinated and organized

the event, ensuring the accuracy of the choices made by the teaching team. Thanks to Ramos who

as always he organized the agenda by trying to give voice to all the "actors" who live in the neighborhood

of the "trenches" of the classrooms who were able to give us valuable ideas to improve from year to year

our year of action.

Beautiful and moving ceremony of delivery of 81 school kits for the children of Aido,

in the district of Djegbadji. They have lived this year, with their families, a

terrible moment, when the government ordered the destruction of the houses of the village to make

place on a very ambitious tourist project that will certainly put into perspective the well-being

for everyone, but which for the moment has only caused great inconvenience. Families living

exclusively for fishing, they found themselves obliged to build makeshift shelters in places that

were assigned to them. Unfortunately, for the moment, they have not received enough economic aid to do so.

face. The consequence is that the few resources they had are not enough to send their

children to school. It is an unexpected event that we had not thought of, we had other plans for

other schools. But Providence quickly came to the rescue (I'm not kidding, I'm getting sick)

goose!) and we were able to offer school supplies to the village, without neglecting the other schools

that asked us for significant support for 58 orphaned children from Ouidah (who will come

satisfied tomorrow, September 20, and 72 children in Penessoulou in the north who have already received

their school kits on Saturday, September 7 and whom we will talk about in a separate post. So in the presence

of the district chief, the school director, the village chief and various local authorities

who represent so many realities, the delivery ceremony took place. Each of them

expressed their emotional satisfaction for the gesture that the NGO SOPADA was able to

accomplish, thanks to the help of friends who believed in us from all over Italy. This school is

very isolated from large population centers. There is no electricity. The "bell" at the start of classes,

Made in from an old rusty rim, it fulfills its role well. The structure is simple but

worthy and the children seem very polite. They are certainly very eager to

go to school and receive the education that can guarantee them a future full

satisfaction. Our best wishes for a regular and fruitful work go to them.

We will keep the situation under surveillance and, if necessary, we will help them again next year, if necessary

Providence will be with us.

A big thank you, as well as to the donors, all listed on the banner that appears in the photos, to Ramos

Vodounon, Koudoda Elisée Barboza, Ibrahim Abou as always very faithful and very important

collaborators of our NGO, who, thanks to their volunteering, greatly relieve Paola and me of

a commitment that it is increasingly difficult for us to carry out alone, especially since the activity is

it is growing, thank God, from year to year.

The distribution of school supplies this morning to some children who are

starting boarding school this year (a kind of high school that begins after 6 years of primary school and lasts

seven years), is particularly close to our hearts and fills us with pride.

In fact, these 10 children are among those who received scholarships from the NGO SoPADA last year

and to whom we promised to renew their support if they had

a profit above the average.

There were 127 of them and this year we rewarded about sixty of the best. The remaining 50,

that is, smaller, will be rewarded with new supplies in the coming days in Agbanu and Fonsramey.

Let us remember that these children are all in some way orphans or at least abandoned by their

parents, therefore without the means to go to school.

Our best wishes go to them for a fruitful and constant school activity.

Special thanks to Ibrahim, faithful collaborator who coordinated the organization and to all the

Italian (and non-Italian) Friends without whom it would not have been possible to make this delivery and those

of the next few days.

Andrea and Paola could not participate because they were taking place in the north, 400 km from where we are. In fact, they were busy preparing the other supplies that were to be delivered later

they were distributed in three separate school buildings and which we have already talked about at length.

It is only now that we have received photographs that are not very professional, but do the job.

to document these moments, which took place on September 7.

We sent Djaffarou, who is also our treasurer and accountant, to the site. One weekend,

with Aliou and Rafiou, he was able to distribute 72 school kits in two different villages:

- Penessolou, where this activity came from with the first supplies made since

2018 with 39 needy students

- Alédjo, a village in which 33 other destitute orphans were identified and we added

them at the last moment.

The ceremony took place in the presence of the chief of the village of Penessoulou ALIDOU Djibril,

ABOUBACAR Abdel Aziz, representative of the Commune, SANDA Aliou vice-president of ADAP,

AROUNA Shabane president of the students' relatives, ALASSANE Djimanath president of the

Alédjo Associations.

The day has therefore arrived for the officialization of the delivery of the equipment donated by the voluntary organization "Il Sorriso di Bright". Although we have already used them in recent days to meet the urgent needs of the poor (as many have had the opportunity to see), it is true that there is a formal document certifying to the donors that these instruments have arrived in good hands. and that they will be used for the purposes set by the Organization itself, which statutorily deals, in various forms, with aid to poor children in the broadest sense, therefore also in the health field. Thanks to ODV "Il Sorriso di Bright" for providing us with a portable ultrasound scanner at Paola's disposal and a portable dental unit for dental treatments. Thanks also to Loretta Bianchi, President of the Organization and Guido, Vice President. Your expectations will not be disappointed!

Feelings are mixed after 5 days of hard work "non-stop" to assist Guido, our dentist, during dental care at the Segbanou Humanitarian Hospital Center. What prevails is the satisfaction of having relieved more than a hundred people who suffered from excruciating dental pain and who could not afford to go to the dentist. Their gratitude certainly exceeds our efforts. It is also true that working from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a short break to eat a bite leaves its mark in the evening. We started Monday morning and by the end of the day we were already eliminated! But we continued with tenacity until this morning when we tidied up, gathered our things and arranged the environment, a sort of rather empty classroom in which we placed two beds, three tables to place all the tools, wooden chairs which were certainly not the case. help our backs, forced to bend over the patient in improbable positions and the inevitable "portable unit" which contains in a sort of trolley all the instruments to operate on the teeth (turbines, aspirator, micromotor, compressed air, sprayed water, catalyst lamp and scaling tool). In reality, we tried to limit the interventions to the most urgent cases, which often resulted in very laborious extractions and in the majority of cases so complicated that surgery was necessary. It must be recognized that the experience and professionalism of Dr. Guido Corradi were essential to obtain a positive result because the teeth of Africans differ greatly from ours which are smaller and certainly less tenacious. Not to mention the depth of the roots, very difficult to extract because they are very long and often irregular. To complicate a rather complex picture, the electricity company did not miss a daily outage of almost two hours. In almost impossible conditions, we continued to work in the dark, with the only help of the dentist's headlamp, for simple extraction operations (nothing else could have been done).

The photos describe the different phases: the preparatory ones for the creation of a clinic from scratch, the first operations in the morning (calling and registering patients), the pre-consultation to determine a possible antibiotic therapy before starting, and then entering the heart of the interventions.

The Camillian Fathers helped us in every way and did not let us miss the comfort of a hot meal.

For SOPADA, this is not a new experience, but each time it is always very exciting and enriching. Relieving suffering is a human and Christian experience, so beautiful that it is difficult to describe. And our commitment will continue in this direction as long as we have the strength. A special thank you to Michelle (who is now a full member of SOPADA) who helped by preparing the anesthesia, continuously disinfecting the instruments by quickly handing them over to Guido and who never lost the sensitivity to hold the hands of the most suffering patients during the most complex operations.

Carole is a girl in her early thirties who lives and works in Ouidah. She has always dedicated her life to volunteering, making her skills available as an accountant for the "Caisse de Solidarité" group of the parish of the Basilica. This group is made up of parishioners and consists of a collection which has the aim of supporting members if they find themselves in financial difficulty, for the most disparate reasons, but above all to cover medical expenses in the event of illness or hospitalisation. Ironically, she herself found herself in difficulty by contracting a serious autoimmune disease, Lupus, which requires long and very expensive treatments, after having undergone a complete cycle of chemotherapy. To this end, Sopada has undertaken fundraising to cover the very considerable expenses, at least for a while.

Today I feel the obligation to thank the donors who made this little miracle possible. We found CellCept's generic drug to treat Carole's autoimmune disease. I remember that this medicine costs €105 in BÉNIN (€170 in Italy!!) for each box and is only enough for 12 and a half days of therapy. Her monthly salary doesn't even come close to covering the cost of a single box! Thanks to the research of our friend Gianluca Iori we managed to find 17 boxes for around €64 which should guarantee around 6 months of therapy. It is true that the treatment is expected to last up to 2 years, but for now we are confident in a positive response from the body.

THANKS TO THE GENEROSITY OF:

LaMeri Catellani, Angela Gamberini, Maria Mele, Lorenzo Pinetti, Manuela Lavaroni, the Sanitary workers of Montecchio and me and Paola which we completed to reach the sum of €1100. I also thank the pharmacy who gave us a 15% discount. (Google translate)

We have concluded an agreement with the Il Sorriso di Bright Association, which creates and supports support projects for the poorest children in third world countries, particularly in Africa. The President Loretta Bianchi appreciated the work carried out in Bénin by our NGO and proposed a collaboration which materializes, if all goes well, with the supply of a portable mini-unit for dentists and an obstetric-gynecological ultrasound system which will be used by Guido and Paola in the orphanage for abandoned newborns run by the nuns of Notre Dame des Apotres, during his consultations with the most needy pregnant women.

WHAT IS A “MINI PORTABLE DENTAL UNIT”

by "DRESSING UNIT" we usually mean the "dentist's chair" which "brings together" all the essential tools for practicing dentistry: drill, saliva aspirator, air-water syringe, lamp. (Google translate)

When the dentist has to work outside the office, the chair, then the "DRESSING UNIT" must become "MINI" that is, it must condense all the essential instruments in a very small space, like a suitcase or a trolley on wheels, to be able to be easily transportable and can be used next to a patient's bed in a hospital, in a retirement home for the elderly,

or in Africa, in the remote villages of the savannah, where sometimes only a very few courageous volunteer dentists arrive to carry out the most urgent and indispensable dental therapies... those that the WHO. called “O.U.T.": Oral Urgent Treatment.

In practice, these are "dental extractions" to be performed in patients in whom tooth decay, which is a bacterial infection, has initially caused the destruction of the teeth and which then, if left untreated, causes serious infections and abscesses with devastating skin fistulas, which, by preventing feeding, can also lead to the death of patients

This is one of the motivations that pushed Dr. Guido Corradi (who is currently vice president of the IL SMILE DI BRIGHT ASSOCIATION and member of the NGO SoPADA) to become a volunteer dentist in AFRICA.  (Google translate)

He started more than 25 years ago, way back in 1998, and since then he has never stopped going every year, sometimes even twice a year, during the holiday period, to Ghana, to the hospital of a Comboni mission: the Comboni Hospital in Sogakope-Volta Region.

In recent years, with the increase in experience and knowledge of Africa and its needs, it has moved its range of action to two neighboring and even poorer countries than Ghana: TOGO and BENIN, carrying out its activity as a volunteer dentist in some rural health centers in some towns in the central-northern area of the two countries, the poorest areas without health facilities.

He thus set up a new dental clinic in the Center de Santè of Kolowarè, in Togo (which still hosts several lepers) but since the local population was very poor and could not even afford to pay the small amount requested (corresponding to €1.5 ), he didn't come to the clinic to be treated. And so Dr. Corradi decided to go directly to the surrounding villages, lost in the "brousse" (savanna) to treat the local population in their own homes, small houses with mud walls and thatched roofs, or on the sides of the street, in the shade of a plant.

It is not easy to practice dentistry in those conditions, without the chair, with the patient sitting on a deck chair, without the light of the lamp, without a saliva aspirator and therefore in the midst of blood and flies, having only the hands and extraction tongs, for hours and hours under the sun. It is very tiring and also requires a lot of skill and experience.  Dr. Corradi understands that, in those extreme conditions, it would be very useful to be able to have and use a PORTABLE MINI-DENTAL UNIT.

This is why the following year, in BENIN, when the local non-profit organization SO.P.A.D.A. invites him to carry out free dental volunteering at the C.T.A.L. (Anti-Leprosy Treatment Centre) - a village for lepers of the Roul Follerau foundation but which is also a health dispensary for the surrounding population - Dr. Corradi decides to use a PORTABLE MINI-unit, asking to borrow it from some Italian volunteer friends who operate in neighboring Togo.

Working with the Mini-unit is much easier, for example by being able to aspirate blood and saliva

from the patients' mouths and therefore have a better view of the operating field.

Having the PORTABLE MINI-DEVICE at your disposal it is possible not only to carry out extractions, but also to try to "treat the teeth"... in particular those of children - especially the decayed front teeth - thus avoiding having to extract them, disfiguring their smile forever!

And receiving, in exchange for a filling, the kiss of a child happy to be able to smile again!

Also this year the NGO SoPADA (Non-Governmental Organization) - which operates in BENIN - asked Dr. Corradi to return to carrying out his dental volunteering activity at two Health Dispensaries, one in the south of the country - in OUIDAH - managed by Sisters of the African Congregation “Notre Dame des Apotres” – and one in central-northern Benin, in PENESSOULOU, in the municipality of BASSILA, a small rural hospital managed by the state. The sustainable agriculture company (Solidarité Pour l'Amélioration et le Dévelopement Agricole) is also based in Penessoulou, which also gave its name to the NGO that carries out social and humanitarian activities. (Google translate)

A relationship of fruitful collaboration is now taking shape between two voluntary associations: “SoPADA” in Benin, through its Social Affairs Manager, Andrea Puglisi and his wife Paola and “IL SORRISO DI BRIGHTO.D.V.” in Italy (www.ilsorrisodibright.org), through Dr. Corradi who is a founding member and works in both the two Associations.

But the president of the “Smile of Bright” - Loretta Bianchi - decided to give a strong and unequivocal signal of this synergy of intent between Italy and Africa by deciding to purchase - only after launching a specific fundraising campaign - both a MINIRIUNITO PORTABLE that a PORTABLE OBSTETRIC-GYNECOLOGICAL ULTRASOUND to be made available to SoPADA and its numerous humanitarian initiatives in Benin.

Dr. Guido will therefore take with him TO BENIN, next August, and will use the PORTABLE MINI UNIT on site; while the PORTABLE ULTRASOUND will be delivered into the hands of Andrea and Paola - who are temporarily in Italy for medical treatment - to be then used by Paola, who is a retired professional midwife, in the maternity clinics where she provides her volunteer work.

This desire to collaborate and interact between two humanitarian associations is beautiful! It allows us to rationalize our forces, that is, to make the best use of the always, unfortunately, scarce economic resources and to be able to achieve objectives that, alone, would not be able to be achieved.

The cost of the mini portable dental unit is €1790

Naturally we avoided choosing the most expensive devices, but also the cheapest ones from China, opting for a good old Italian company: De Giorgi.

This is the device that I already used a year ago in Benin and which can be seen in the images.

I think it has the best quality/price ratio.

I trust, as always, in the sensitivity and generosity of Italians towards useful, credible and concrete humanitarian projects. The goal we set ourselves is not at all easy to achieve... but it is simple to understand: alleviate pain and give a smile back to those who cannot heal themselves!

Guido Corradi

Andrea Puglisi

IL SMILE DI BRIGHT Association - O.D.V. www.ilsorrisodibright.org

SOPADA NGO Association www.sopada.org

(Google translate)

We have finally reached the happy conclusion. SOPADA had had a sum in his belly for some time which, by express wish of the (anonymous) donor, was destined for the popouniere of Ouidah, the orphanage for abandoned newborns. We were just waiting for a project to be submitted to us aimed at substantially improving the children's stay. Blackouts are very frequent in the city. When it happens at night, children find themselves completely in the dark and experience moments of fear that sometimes last for long hours. There are more than thirty and it is not possible to console them all. Thus the idea of equipping the center with a solar system was born. The installer was willing to sell and install the system partly on credit. We put in about half of the total amount, allowing the work to begin. The operation will allow energy savings of around €300 per month, which in these parts is a lot of money. This morning, with immense joy, we handed over to Sister Lucrezia and her sister the check for one million CFA Fr. which corresponds to approximately €1500. I then went to the work site to see the actual installation that was underway. The children of the orphanage will be able to sleep peacefully and when they open their eyes they will always be reassured by the light of a light bulb. (Google translate)