Roberto Bazzoni Onlus : An Annual Letter from Roberto Bazzoni Onlus-US

An Annual Letter from Roberto Bazzoni Onlus-US

Daniel Kingbury, President of Roberto Bazzoni Onlus-US, updates the charity's donors on the situation in Zimbabwe.

March 6, 2008

Dear Friends:

Saving a child, in some ways, is easier than you would imagine. Six years ago we were among the first to swing into action in the beleaguered country of Zimbabwe. With your help, we have rushed life-saving medicines to the patients at the Luisa Guidotti Hospital in Mutoko—in the African bush. Our ability to respond quickly as the first private hospital in the country to treat HIV/AIDS patients has saved countless lives. We now are treating 1,719 patients and keeping them alive.

Thanks to your support, we are securing foodstuffs for patients and hospital staff caring for them in a country where there literally is no food on the store shelves. Twelve tons of mealy meal arrived in a recent shipment, the corn-base of their everyday diet, and now patients, staff and nursing school pupils have their daily bread. Five tons of sugar beans—a staple for AIDS patients, and especially children, as a source of extra proteins—have been delivered. Many tons of soybeans, oil and flour are providing other desired proteins. Powdered milk, canned fish and beef, pasta and rice also ease the suffering of hunger and help restore our patients to health.

Another of our most pressing concerns is fuel, which is now purchased in South Africa and being consigned to feed the generators at the Luisa Guidotti Hospital; these generators enable us to perform surgeries and laboratory tests and to keep some medicines at a cool temperature. The generators, too, allow us to pump up water from the boreholes and operate computers, faxes, printers, scanners and cell phone batteries. The fuel supply in the country is increasingly erratic and scarce but the Luisa Guidotti, under the hand of Carlo Spagnolli, M.D. and with your help, is carrying on.

We also distribute essential household items such as jerry cans for carrying fresh water, soap and blankets to ward off the night-time cold.

Thanks to this logistical support, the Luisa Guidotti Hospital is one of the few hospitals in the country where patients can receive medications, good feeding, diagnostic and surgical procedures and lots of TLC (tender loving care)—which no acronym can adequately describe. In fact, patients are increasingly flocking to our facility from the capital city of Harare and beyond.

We are mobilized and dedicated to rushing these emergency supplies to our patients. The cost of medicines and medical treatment is now lower than the cost of the ancillary help needed to survive: food, fuel, generators, soap, and other essential supplies—a shameful fact in what was, not that long ago, the most prosperous country on the African continent.

Our aim last year of increasing the number of people under treatment to 1,400 is now reached, and exceeded, in spite of the worsening general situation of the country. One hundred seventy-nine of our patients are children. In the four “PMTCT PLUS” programs (Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission and treatment of the mother) we are treating 1,030 mothers.

Your dollars—and your compassion—go a long way. Your gifts to the Roberto Bazzoni Onlus reach out to people who could not imagine the kind of life we live in the United States. They know only poverty and hardship.

We continue to need your help to keep these successful illness-counteracting and poverty-fighting projects going strong and ask you to please continue giving as generously as you can.

We again were treated to Dr. Carlo Spagnolli speaking at our gala “Out of Africa” last year. For the second year, he gave press interviews informing the general public about the situation in Zimbabwe with his humane fervor and passion. Dr. Spagnolli inspires action and makes us realize that our work makes a difference in Mutoko, Zimbabwe.

This year’s events are our perennially sold-out 6th Annual Roberto Bazzoni Onlus Charity Golf Tournament to be held at Indian Pond Country Club on Monday, June 23, 2008 in Kingston, Massachusetts, and our fall gala on Friday, November 7, 2008, this year entitled “Brass Attack!”

This swank Hotel Intercontinental gala event is totally reinvented once again for your special enjoyment. We will kick up our heels to the finest live dance band in New England! “Brass Attack” features four horns, a rhythm section, and a lead vocalist performing the hits of such artists as Tower of Power, Chicago, Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Glenn Miller, Van Morrison, Blood Sweat and Tears, and classic hits from the 1930’s through the 1990’s.

We feel both pride and responsibility for your getting us to this moment in our history of being able to celebrate the good that we are doing. And we feel gratitude.

Your kindness is offering hope—and life—to one of the most difficult places on earth today. And we look forward to continuing to partner with you to have this direct and positive impact. If we don’t help the patients in Mutoko no one else will.

If you have any questions about our programs or would like additional information, please feel free to contact me or Susan Bullock, Director of Community Relations, Pioneer Investments, at (617) 422-4968.

Very truly yours,

Daniel K. Kingsbury
President, Roberto Bazzoni Onlus - US
& President and CEO,
Pioneer Investments

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