Reggio Emilia, 27 December 2022 – A tragic crash brings mourning to the diocese of Reggio and the Congregation of the Houses of Charity. This afternoon in Madagascar five people died in an accident, aboard a big 4×4. The car in which nine people involved in the Ampasimanjeva mission were traveling went off the road after returning from a pilgrimage to Vohipeno and five lost their lives.
The doctor is dead Randriatioana Raoelina Martindirector of the Fondation Médicale d’Ampasimanjeva hospital together with his wife the doctor Nivo, don Didier Razafinjatovo (Brother of Charity) e the Minor Carmelites of Charity, Sister Justine Lalao and Sister Marie Louise.
They were seriously injured in the accident Sister Marie OdetteCarmelite Minor of Charity and the novices of the Brothers of Charity Fidson ed Herschel. Sister Hary Berthine, Carmelite Minor of Charity, was injured in a less serious way.
“Let us entrust our pain to the Lord of life and our plea”, they write from the diocese. Just about ten days ago news was given of an important loan for the hospital management project, entrusted to the diocese of Reggio. project is titled “I was sick…” for accessible and sustainable healthcare in Lower Farahony – Madagascar (Ampasimanjeva Hospital).
Manakara is a poor city in Madagascar in the southeast of the country. Very poor. It has 60,000 inhabitants, although, unofficially, there could be many more. The Malagasy people reproduce constantly: sometimes there are even 7-8 children per family, to be fed, without knowing how. What the diocesan missionary center of Reggio Emilia is doing in this area, with the local parish dedicated to Divine Mercy, led by Don Luca Fornaciari, assisted by Don Simone Franceschini, it is enormous. Enrica Salsi, from Reggio, carries out a huge effort at the psychiatric hospital of Ambokala, also in Manakara, of which she is responsible for the project. Patients with mental illnesses are many and decompensated. Not being under pharmacological treatment, they often arrive in Ambokala, in serious situations.
Bonaccini’s condolences
“I express my utmost solidarity and closeness to the diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla and to bishop Giacomo Morandi for the death of five people from the mission of Ampasimanjeva, in Madagascar, in the diocese of Manakara, where there is a House of Charity of the diocese of Reggio”. The president of the Region, Stefano Bonaccini,
expresses its condolences for the victims of the tragic road accident in Ampasimanjeva.
“Doctors and religious, women and men – recalls Bonaccini – who combined faith with commitment to others, people who dedicated their lives to caring for and assisting the weakest and most unfortunate. Our thoughts go to them. Deepest condolences to their loved ones, to the diocese of Reggio Emilia and Guastalla, to Bishop Morandi and to the mission of Ampasimanjeva”.