Doctor Carbone is the head physician of Granedigo Hospital’s A & E department (Turin) and associate Ambassador of the For a Smile Onlus (NPO). On Friday the 29th of January, he will go to Kenya, or Chaaria, to be more precise, on a humanitarian mission in the Cottolengo Hospital Centre.

Doctor Carbone, supported by For a Smile Onlus, has for years offered his valuable help in paediatrics, obstetrics, emergency medicine, pathogenic and surgery wards throughout the most deprived regions in the world. At the Cottolengo Mission Centre he will supervise the emergency incidents of the maternity ward for fifteen days and will evaluate, in the very premises of the hospital, the main system deficiencies. The hospital currently has 140 beds, but the number of patients often exceeds this, having reached 160 in the past, and occasionally more in times of high need. Camp beds are being used and in cases of great need, two patients are put on the same bed. This situation is a clear indicator that the maternity ward’s operating room is in need of renovation as well as the need for new cradles, incubators, and beds for the pregnant women.

For a Smile Onlus will see Doctor Carbone through every phase of his humanitarian activity, both at the Cottolengo Centre and at the small orphanage annex, where newborns from 0 to 21 months, orphans of underage mothers or those rejected by their parents, are given shelter and are lovingly taken care of by the Vincentian nuns (under the supervision of Sister Oliva Maninetti).

For more information and updates on the current conditions and requirements of the Cottolengo Centre log onto: www.chaariahospital.blogspot.com

Chaaria is a small village situated in the desert of Gatimbi, and is part of Meru. It is located 400 km north of Nairobi and borders on the district of Tharaka. Strictly speaking Chaaria is a market, therefore a place of exchange and commerce, whilst the biggest part of its population lives in houses built inside their own land estate. The Cottolengo Center is located 1 km from Chaaria, near the Parochial Church that was built on the orders of the ‘Piccola Casa’ of Turin and for this reason dedicated to San Giuseppe Benedetto Cottolengo.