"More than a cup! Samburu - Green menstrual management project" is a project started in January 2022 in Samburu in northern Kenya, aimed at young women of middle and high school. The mission of the project is to support the emancipation of girls and improve their quality of life and future opportunities, increasing awareness of the menstrual cycle and the aspects connected to it, breaking taboo and providing spaces for dialogue with comprehensive and correct information. The main actions are: to carry out training days with the professionals of the Drawing Dreams Initiative and to provide each girl with a hygiene kit consisting of a menstrual cup, washable sanitary pads, soaps and towels.
Our Projects
Our goal is to promote solidarity initiatives in countries and communities in need in the work, health, agricultural-industrial, educational-cultural and environmental protection fields.
Our aim is to create value, employment and well-being for the local populations and for the operators in the respect and protection of the uses and customs of the host country.
KENYA - More than a cup! (since 2022)
KENYA - Scholarship Programme (since 2017)
The project, started in 2017 in Meru County, finances the secondary school through scholarships for three deserving students who do not have the necessary financial resources to support the expenses. In Kenya being able to access and attend good secondary schools with good results is essential to be able to enter public universities. Our goal is to support these young people in building a better future for themselves and for the community in which they live.
A detailed explanation of the aforementioned project can be found in the Documents area under Kenya Scholarship - updated
KENYA - Pamoja Kwa Watoto (2019)
Together for the children
In April 2019 Dr. Giorgia Paolone and Dr. Francesca Foresti went to Meru (Kenya) with the mission of creating a socio-educational project aimed at strengthening the creative and relational skills of the Nkabune orphanage's childrens. During their stay they made a participatory observation concerning the group dynamics and the organization;and also some structured activities to observe the children's skills and evolutionary development. In July 2019, when they came back home, they reported the elements analyzed through a scientific document which showed that it is necessary to equip the orphanage with educational staff that responds to the relational, emotional and creative needs of children.
A detailed explanation of this project can be found in the Documents area under the heading Pamoja Kwa Watoto.
KENYA - Meru Children's Home (since 2018)
In 2018 we started a collaboration with Sister Anselmina, a nun from the Diocese of Meru (Kenya).
We visited her orphanage and we decided to support her and to date we have:
-contributed to the purchase of the orphanage's pick-up;
-purchased and mounted photovoltaic panels thus ensuring the production of electricity;
-bought sheets.
Our future intention is to bring specialists for a possible internship.
TOGO - the smile's seed (since 2016)
The project "The seed of the smile", begun at the end of 2016, supports and collaborates with the dispensary of Todomè in Togo, where there are numerous births every year and many deaths in the first few years of life; deaths easily avoidable with basic care.
The project aims to guarantee ongoing care for newborns and their mothers, guaranteeing a valid vaccination plan and medical examinations before and after the birth of the child (until the end of school age).
As an association, in addition to health assistance, we decided to support all the children born in the project financially in full the first year of school.
In 2018, 98 children were registered and of these, after one year, we had only 2 deaths: a white death and a septic complication in the second month. A mortality of around 2% in these regions is fantastically low.
Further details are available in the section Documents in the file "Il seme del Sorriso"!
MADAGASCAR - Machine for clay bricks (2016)
In Ambanja, northern Madagascar, we met Father Stefano Scaringella, St. Damian hospital's director.
Father Stefano was looking for a machine to make clay bricks to be used in Antananarivo for the construction of his orphans' houses who went to the city to continue their studies. - The use of raw brick avoids the use of the furnace for cooking and therefore the use of timber, reducing deforestation in place -.
Working with him to find the right machine, back in Brescia, we found a project that could satisfy us at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Brescia, and in particular at the CETAM.
In November 2014 with Father Stefano we met the engineers and students of the University and we agreed to build the brick-making machine.
In January 2015 the machine was completed and transported to Antananarivo.
In this project, Via Etica supported the student who made an abroad thesis on the construction and operation of the brick-making machine, with particular attention to finding the right mix of clay and cement for the brick's construction.
MADAGASCAR - Ozone Therapy Project (2014)
Via Etica has donated to the Saint Damien clinic in Ambanja (directed by father Stefano Scaringella) an ozone therapy machine, brought to the site by Monica Colombini.
The machine was placed at the leper hospital to assess its use and effectiveness against leprosy (as requested by the OMS through Dr. Antonella Bertolotti from Intermed).
Dr. Bertolotti used the equipment in the following July on leprosy samples.
In August, Marco Capretti and Tiziana Guerra were in Ambanja and decided to transfer the equipment to the clinic where patients with various pathologies belong and who can benefit from ozone therapy.
The device was then entrusted to Dr. Claugen Segana, on the instructions of Father Scaringella, after a training use by Marco Capretti and Tiziana Guerra.
Via Etica has offered to support the development of ozone therapy at the Ambanja clinic with further training missions.
