Putting Our Plan into Effect
In 2011, after the hope of financial backing from the Italian business world had faded, there was a turning point: after an encounter in Accra (at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Health) with the then minister of health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, and the almost immediate signing of a memorandum of understanding
with the Ghana Health Service (which accepted Everywhere’s proposals), the Africa Project finally got off the ground: the Ministry of Health, the Northern Region and the Tamale Teaching Hospital involved the Korean Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) and the Hyundai Motor Group in the project.
In 2012 it was Pietro Sergio Savani, the chairman of Everywhere NPO, who launched the project using the two mobile clinics — with all the necessary digital diagnostic equipment — donated by the Koreans and accompanied by a crossover vehicle for the transport of the medical staff and patients donated by Everywhere, thanks also to grants from the Region of Lombardy and Municipality of Milan. Thus began the planned provision of medical care and monitoring, starting from a village in the Northern Region, Yipale.
The response of the village community was both moving and warm; orderly and precise, the doctors and health workers of the Tamale Teaching Hospital adhered to the following procedure: registration of patients, screening, medical examinations, diagnostic examinations if necessary and writing of final reports, which were summarized every three months.
Thus, the policy of handing over responsibility to the African medical staff, which Everywhere preferred to the more widespread (and costly) use of European staff, proved to be a great success.
Continuing with this cooperation, Everywhere NPO supplied free of charge medical equipment reconditioned by BITeB (Banco informatico technologico e biomedico/Computer, Technological and Biomedical Bank) NPO to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and signed an agreement with the Fondazione Banco Farmaceutico (Pharmaceutical Bank Foundation) for future consignments of free medicines to the same hospital to cater for the needs of its outreach projects. It also made preliminary contacts with the provincial council of Trento, in northern Italy, to inquire into the possibility of sending young graduates from Tamale University to hospitals in Trento and Rovereto for further periods of practical training.
Lastly, the Ghana Health Service proposed that another three American-made mobile clinics should be placed at the disposal of the Africa Project in order to favour the provision of other medical services — such as dentistry and ophthalmology — in the area.
The success of the project was confirmed by the unexpected recognition granted by the Guido Venosta European Foundation with the ‘Premio della Riconoscenza’ (Gratitude Prize ) awarded to the chairman of Everywhere, Pietro Sergio Savani, as part of the annual ‘Premio il Ponte’ (Bridge Prize), which seeks to encourage the world of profit to pay more attention to that of non-profit.
