Open Heart - Nigeria
The beginning: 2012
projects in Nigeria start in the 2012.
Through the project Open Heart, Local health authorities identify some children with serious heart conditions.
With their mothers, these children are transferred to Italy., treated at the Gaslini Hospital in Genoa thanks to the generosity of Dr. Francesco Santoro host during the recovery in the lodging house of Fistfight a Cocoon (Mantua) and finally repatriated to Nigeria, cured.
Subsequently, every year, these children torn from death they receive a visit from the NGO staff.
At the end of July 2013, the first trip to check on children operated on in September of the previous year, for to know their families and to bring further assistance sanitary ware.
For example, in the pediatrics departments of the project's partner hospitals, they were delivered 55 boxes full of toys e clothes, collected in Italy.
An operation made possible thanks to the solidarity of two elementary schools, that of Viadana (Mantua) and that of Castenedolo, where, during the 2011/2012 school year, teachers and parents worked hard for this collection to benefit Nigerian children.
The project is also being activated in Nigeria Emergency transport with the hospitals Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital in Okolobiri, and Federal Medical Center in Yenagoa.
Year 2024: Cardiovascular Surgery in Yenagoa
In 2024, the President, Attorney. Paolo Novellini and head of the humanitarian mission in Nigeria Festus Adedayo, On a trip between April and May, they defined the new course of the OPEN HEART Project also in Yenagoa.
In a collaboration with the FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER indeed, following the talks with the head physician and the facility director, the groundwork is laid for the creation of the department of PEDIATRIC AND ADULT CARDIOTHORACIC SURGERY.
A long-awaited success that required years of waiting and intense work. Not least, the availability of a team in Yenagoa, ready to embrace a cause strongly linked to life.
The occasion will also be important for visiting the POBIC house In Yenagoa to check the living conditions of its inhabitants, young and old.
Not only. It will be an opportunity to lay the groundwork for the new project related to the creation of activities to economically support women in difficulty.
Specifically regarding tailors, through which those who operate there will be able to sustain themselves financially.
Year 2023: Meeting the Governor, screenings, and the arrival of Destiny
2023 begins with the official meeting with the governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri.
Bayelsa State is one of the crucial points for the openheart project.
There are two hospitals actively collaborating.
Federal Medical Centre – Yenagoa.
Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital – Okolobiri.
The availability by the authorities It is fundamental to weave the healthcare rescue work.
This meeting, it is the demonstration of the direction taken and of the will to consolidate these relief channels.
In addition to this, and as always, 2023 also sees a collaborative screening session from the Giannina Gaslini of Genoa.
But that's not all. 2023 is the year we met Destiny.
We followed her whole story, recounting it step by step. Her arrival, barely breathing as she clung to life, up until her discharge on 10/26/2023.
Now Destiny is back home and meeting her has been an incredible privilege.
The restart after the pandemic: 2022
2022 marks the return to life for the entire planet.
After two years spent on my knees, where even the Open Heart Project he had suffered an insurmountable setback, 2022 feels like a fresh start.
The year when everything begins again and history resumes where we left off.
Saving lives.
On August 16, in fact, at the hospital Gaslini of Genoa, two children, accompanied by their mothers and Pobic volunteers, are admitted for urgently address their interventions.
Ayoko Tarila Diane, who was then just over two years old, accompanied by her mother I don't want Joy Ebitimi.
Mamuga Ekpebu Peresodo Jed at the time four years old, accompanied by his mother Ekpebu Bena Ellis.
Along with them the Dr. Tomprebofa Lesly Lewis And the engineer Adedayo Olusola Emmanuel, both historical volunteers of Pobic Section Nigeria.
After years lived with doubt and difficulties related to the first planetary pandemic of the modern era, where the entire planet suffered incalculable losses, saving two young lives is the most beautiful thing that can be accomplished.
Continuing education: 2019
Training continues for the year 2019.
An increasingly intense and increasingly participatory path, which follows a road parallel to the Open Heart Project.
Two more events are scheduled in Nigeria during the year. May and November.
12 children take advantage of the opportunity to treat serious heart problems.
A huge success and a great satisfaction that adds to the continuous on-site training of specialized doctors so as not to halt what Pobic has been building for years.
A fundamental turning point: 2018
2018 follows in the footsteps of 2017.
Through the year other two on-site missions for a total of 17 operated children. A sign of improvement for the objectives, of support, and of continuity.
What happens again, however, and which represents a a fundamental turning point in the Pobic project “Open Heart”, is related to Medical personnel training directly in Nigeria.
Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. – Chinese Proverb
It is with this premise that the medical team of Gaslini approach the training that doctors from two hospitals are participating in:
A year of successes: 2017
Everything that is sown in 2016, begins to be harvested in 2017.
Throughout the year are organized two missions directly in Nigeria.
The first one will be at May, while the second will be between late November and early December.
The effort put in by the association and the team of Specialists of the Gaslini Institute of Genoa, allows you to obtain a outstanding success. In both missions, a total of 16 children. 16 years old returned to a quotidian life without penalties, thanks to local support from University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu State.
Another important thing is that in 2017, children already operated on by Pobic in Italy in previous years, they can go directly in their nation for post-operative checks.
A pleasure to see their faces again, and those of smiling mothers.
A New Goal: 2016
Let's jump ahead to 2016.
Pobic's efforts to consolidate the project in a land where every possible health aid is needed took a further leap forward in 2016, a fundamental step in this case.
It is in this year, in fact, that the first mission directly on the territory with the Italian cardiac surgery team. No longer then, transfer children and mother to Italy, but also the possibility of helping that specific territory to to stand on one's own two feet.
Initially, the staff is limited to just two interventions. It is necessary to study the territory and equipment and familiarize oneself with the local dynamics before proceeding with a faster
A distinguished visit: 2015
In 2015 there is a Distinguished visitor for four children Operate in Italy.
A Bozzolo recovering from heart surgery, the children are reached by Your Excellency Bridget Aworabhi, wife of the then Nigerian ambassador to Italy.
Arrived to visit the children together with the staff of the Nigerian embassy in Italy, the moment it represented another moment of contact between Pobic and the Nigerian institutions, to sign the continued growth and continuous recognition of the project.
Continued Commitment: 2014
From that moment on Pobic doesn't interrupt more his project.
In 2014, despite widespread panic around the world for the epidemic of Ebola, Pobic is not intimidated. This year too tens of girls and boys are coming to Italy to be operated on Gaslini of Genoa.
It took a real Cautious strategyBefore departure, local health officials placed the young patients and their families under hospital quarantine.
Once upon a timeArrived in Italy another one second lockdown together with the mothers, meaning the family members who accompanied them, followed by Doctor Carlo Calamari, volunteer doctor for the NGO who has traveled to Africa multiple times.
Only afterwards were they hospitalized at Gaslini. And for convalescence, the children and mothers were hosted by families in Genoa, Verona, and Brescia.
The project as well Emergency Transport in 2014 He has seen some important actions.
The first one part of the BLS course for medical staff and paramedic to bring forward the second part and the exam scheduled for summer 2015.
In addition, the groundwork has been laid, including a feasibility study, of the pediatric ophthalmology project, which involves training medical and paramedical staff and students at the university hospital Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital by Okolobiri for Perform cataract surgery using the phacoemulsification system.
The Project in Nigeria Gains Momentum: 2013
It is 2013 and the association's work in Nigeria is beginning to take root.
The Pobic staff's summer trip allows establish institutional relationships high-level and sign Memoranda of Understanding which laid the groundwork for the launch of the “Emergency Transport” project.
The goal is to Training of Nigerian personnel in first aid in accordance with international standards and, not least, the provision of fully equipped ambulances.
Pobic volunteers conduct interviews with the Minister of Health for Bayelsa State, at the ministry's offices, as well as with senators in the “Government House.”.
These meetings mark the recognition by local authorities—as well as by doctors from the two partner hospitals—of the work and the importance of Pobic's commitment to Nigeria.
- Together we can do more and more
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Thanks to numerous donations and the work of many volunteers, we have so far helped over 300 children in 7 international cooperation missions.
With your support, we can do more and more.
OPERATING HEADQUARTERS
- Registered office / operational office Via Romanino 1 25123 Brescia
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CONTACTS
Registered/Operational office
Via Romanino 1
25123 Brescia
Tel - +39 0376-920464
Headquarters
V. Belfiore No. 9
Bozzolo (MN)
Operations Headquarters
Via Santa Maria in Conio, 10
35131 Padua PD
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