Roberto Bazzoni Onlus : “Out of Africa” Raises $150,000 for Luisa Guidotti Hospital

“Out of Africa” Raises $150,000 for Luisa Guidotti Hospital

Roberto Bazzoni Onlus US continues its fight against AIDS

The 6th Annual “Out of Africa,” the fundraising auction for Roberto Bazzoni Onlus (the “Onlus”), raised $150,000 for the AIDS patients at the Luisa Guidotti Hospital in Mutoko, Zimbabwe. The black tie event was held Thursday, November 15, at the State Room in Boston, Massachusetts with 200 guests in attendance.

Please click here to view photos from the event.

Auction items included a week at a Tuscan villa with airfare from Alitalia, a trip to the Dominican Republic with airfare from American Airlines, gift certificates to Morton’s, Grill 23, Norumbega Castle-by-the-Sea in Camden, Maine, and the annual Boston Wine Expo, as well as cases of wine from South Africa, handicrafts from Africa and much more. A special item was a Jonathan Papelbon autographed baseball and Jonathan Papelbon jersey which were obtained for the auction by Ms. Linda Bendok.

The Onlus started treating 60 patients at the Luisa Guidotti Hospital in 2001, and is now treating 1,500 patients, 170 of whom are children. This facility is the only private hospital in Zimbabwe that provides free ARV treatment in the country, where over one third of the adult population is infected with HIV. For $200.00 per year, a patient can be treated with generic drugs.

A special pledge appeal at the event undertaken by Mistress of Ceremonies Liz Brunner from WCVB-TV raised thousands of dollars.

All funds raised from “Out of Africa” go directly to hospital suppliers for medicines and medical equipment. The Onlus currently is engaged, too, in securing items such as powdered milk, cornmeal, pasta, and rice for the staff and patients at the hospital as there is no food on store shelves in the country.

The Onlus, an Italian acronym for nonprofit, was founded in 2000 in Milan, Italy to honor the memory and mission of Roberto Bazzoni, son of Sebastiano Bazzoni, an executive within the UniCredito organization. Roberto Bazzoni was on a United Nations-sponsored humanitarian mission plane, which crashed in a mountainside of Kosovo. All those aboard the plane perished. As Roberto Bazzoni was a prosthetic technician, the first project of the hospital was to build a prosthetic hospital in Kosovo, to treat those who had lost their limbs due to land mines and other acts of war.

Pioneer Investments US President and CEO Daniel K. Kingsbury is President of the Roberto Bazzoni Onlus – United States.

For further information about the Roberto Bazzoni Onlus – United States please contact Susan Bullock at 617-422-4968 in Boston.

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