News from Lacor Hospital - Fondazione Corti

Issue dedicated to Piero and
Lucille Corti on the 10 th anniversary
of Piero’s death
2
NEWS FROM LACOR
MARCH
2013
News from Lacor Hospital
A dream has come true in Uganda
In this issue
The future of St Mary's Hospital Lacor p. 2
Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Medicine at Lacor p. 7
New donation programs p. 8
Year IX – n. 2 – March 2013
Bulletin published by Fondazione Piero e
Lucille Corti - Milan (I) and Teasdale-Corti
Foundation - Montréal (CA)
Teasdale-Corti Foundation
8880 Boul. Lacordaire – Saint Léonard
QC - H1R 2B3 (CA) - Tel. +1.514.253.1737
info@teasdalecorti.org - www.teasdalecorti.org
TEASDALE-CORTI
FOUNDATION
FOR LACOR HOSPITAL
Bulletin for benefactors and friends
interested in keeping abreast
on news from Lacor Hospital and
the Teasdale-Corti Foundation

The future of St Mary's Hospital Lacor
Gulu, July 1992, letter from Piero and Lucille Corti
Dear friends and supporters,
On April 20th, it will be ten years since my father passed away, on Easter Sunday 2003. Seven years had passed since my
mother’s death; she contracted AIDS in the seventies, during a surgical procedure.
Since then, the Hospital that had become their whole life, has continued operating and developing, thanks to the work, the
support and the trust of the many who contributed to making it into what it is. In 1992, thirty years after their arrival at Lacor,
my parents were preparing the ground for the Italian and Canadian Foundations which, they hoped, would ensure a future
for Lacor even after their death. It is exciting, for all of us who work for the foundations, to read mum and dad’s original
text with handwritten notes in the margins, with which they announced the foundations' registration to friends, family and
benefactors.
We thought of sharing this document with you because, although we had to shorten it and insert some explanatory notes, it
illustrates the founding values of their work, the steps they took, the work they managed to accomplish and the hopes they
had for the Foundation and for the future of their, and of our, Lacor.
Lacor continues serving the local population and is a reference point for the entire northern Uganda.
The Foundations have grown and offer a crucial financial support and much more, as we have attempted to illustrate in our
past newsletters.
We beg our readers and all those to whom we owe so much for the support given us, to read between the lines and understand
the spirit that powered the dream and transformed it into today’s reality, with the commitment to ensure its future.
Dominique Corti
Kind friends and readers,
We have decided to write the introduction to this document
ourselves, with the aim of convincing you to
participate. Participate in what? In the future, by
changing it.
In fact, Lucille and I are convinced, and we are not
alone in believing this, that Lacor’s future in the
years to come, should be your task as well as ours.
The survival of the Hospital as it is today is in jeopardy.
It is the only hospital that carries out “real”
hospital activities in the Gulu district, which has
360,000 inhabitants, but patients come from all over
the country. It is also the referral point for the
hospitals of northern Uganda. It is known as the best
Hospital in Uganda, and, even if it is a private institution,
it offers its services at a cost that is accessible
to everyone.
The aim of these few pages is the hope that the words,
pictures and numbers will lead the readers to commit
for the Hospital’s future. And it is on this commitment
that the future of Lacor Hospital depends.
FIRST EVENTS
We will start winning your trust by shortly introducing
you to Lacor’s history.
The construction of the Hospital was started in 1958
by Mgr. Cesana, Bishop of Gulu and by the Comboni Mis-
242
sionaries who were active in northern Uganda from
the start of the century. Two hospitals had already
been opened by the missionaries in an area of 120,000
square km and with almost 2,000,000 inhabitants. Four
others were opened within a few years.
Lucille and I arrived here in May 1961. By then, the
maternity ward, the outpatient department and a few
beds managed by four Comboni sisters had been functioning
for a year.
From the start, the Bishop granted the Hospital an independent
administration, which included Lucille and I.
In return we had taken on, with joyful innocence, the
commitment to finding the funds to complete the Hospital
and for its future development, in addition to
squaring the balance sheet. We probably wanted to
avoid delays and hitches in the realization of the
ideal which brought us to Africa: “to create a professionally
efficient hospital, but accessible to the
needy and the poor”.
Lucille and I were alone for nearly 5 years. From 1965,
CUAMM of Padova (the first Italian non government
medical organization and to date, as far as we know,
the most comprehensive one) started sending 3 or 4
volunteer doctors every two years for twenty years.
Subsequent Italian laws on volunteers and civil service
in substitution of compulsory military service
facilitated the employment of these volunteer doctors
by paying their journey, insurance and a modest sal-

ary. This was a big step forward, not only for us, but
for all the seven missionary hospitals, and for some
Ugandan government hospitals that, assisted and organized
by the CUAMM projects, could finally develop
and improve the quantity and quality of their work.
At this point it is impossible for us to go further
without mentioning at least a few of the many doctors
who arrived at Gulu: Prof. Dalla Bernardina, Bolognesi,
Busato, Rho, Stefanini, Molinari, Prof. Warley, Dr. Desjardins
from Canada and Prof. Parson from the United
States. All of them shared their great competences and
qualities. Of course, these few words does them no justice;
we are sorry and secretly ashamed because it is
not fair to speak only about Piero and Lucille.
In 1972, we opened the school for professional nurses
with 90 students for the three year course, and
three peripheral health centres in Opit, Amuru and
Pabo within 45 km from Gulu. In 1981, we started the
training of health educators and opened the school
for laboratory technicians.
ECONOMIC HELP
At first we searched for “benefactors” exclusively
among family, friends and “friends of relatives and of
friends”. From ’68 to ’84, the major donors were Catholic
non-government organizations (NGOs) such as Misereor
(Germany), Peace and Development with Fame-Pereo, the
Roncalli Foundation, Oxfam, Oeuvre du Cardinal Léger
(Canada), Mani Tese (Italy).
While the Hospital developed, the economic, political
and social conditions in Uganda were undergoing dramatic
changes. In 1971, with the arrival on the scene of
Idi Amin, things began to fall apart even faster and
reached an unimaginable decay, and continued from ’79
until ’85 with the second Obote period.
These long years of atrocities and devastations in
every aspect of social life produced extreme poverty
and many deaths caused by violence, lack of medical
assistance, hunger and a lot of child malnutrition
for the almost 2 million people in northern Uganda.
Our Hospital too has lived through very dramatic periods.
Many among the readers will ask themselves
how Lacor could keep increasing both facilities and
output, despite the harsh conditions in which it operated:
economic decline, wars, dictatorships, rebellions,
destructions, the fear that weighed on everyone,
the difficulty in getting supplies, all should have
pushed us to give up and leave. Why did we stay? It is
true that difficulties are a challenge. At Lacor it is
a duty to believe in Providence, to keep a firm hold on
optimism and never give up!
A solution for all of these difficulties was the Support
Group in Italy, which has offered logistic and administrative
support and even more, for years. It has
raised funds, purchased and sent equipment, medicines,
construction materials, food and almost anything the
Hospital needed in order to function through three or
four containers and air shipments to Lacor each year.
3

Until now, the group has been nearly exclusively a
family association, led initially by my father Mario
and my sister-in-law Vanda. They purchase medicines,
tools, etc. and send them from the family’s textile company,
Manifattura Corti. One of my brothers, Eugenio
Corti, is now President of the Group, our nephew Mario
Vismara is Vice-President and Mario Botteon in Besana
has offered his precious accounting services. Others,
such as Dr. Morelli, my nephews, brothers and sisters,
our daughter Dominique, as well as friends and benefactors,
have given their time and/or money to the Hospital.
Basically, my nephew Mario Vismara is the soul
and keystone of the Group, even using the family company
as a hub for gathering and shipping everthing.
Since 2012, after the closing of Mario Vismara’s company,
the Hospital’s “Support Group” is hosted by the Manifattura
Corti, just as it was in the beginning. It is now directed by
another Mario Corti, one of Piero’s nephews. .
All these benefactors, along with all those who worked
at the Hospital, have represented a sort of personification
of Providence for Lacor.
Gradually, from ’75 onward, health services in Uganda
were offered almost exclusively by the missionary
hospitals. This pushed us to aggressively develop Lacor
Hospital services in order to answer as best as
possible to the increasing needs of the population.
These hospitals, now known as Catholic not for profit hospitals,
still carry out approximately 40% of the health care
activities in Uganda.
THE AFRICANISATION PROCESS
In ‘82 the Hospital was approved for the internship of
newly graduated Ugandan doctors from Mulago University
in Kampala. After various unsuccessful attempts,
we were convinced that we should intervene directly
in the process of professional training of Ugandan
physicians if we wanted to convince them to work with
us and to get to know each other…
In ‘84 the first Italian/Ugandan technical cooperation
project started; it was supervised directly by the
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was aimed at
putting Lacor hospital in the condition to train each
year 4-6 Ugandan medical interns and of obtaining the
authorisation from the Ugandan Ministry of Health to
work in our missionary hospitals once they had completed
their internship.
Accepting and carrying out the Italian Cooperation
project for us was a dream come true, because it gave
us, in just a few years, resources and qualified personnel
that we did not expect to have before 2000.
LACOR HOSPITAL TODAY
Summarizing Lacor Hospital in just a few numbers today,
July ‘92, can help understand it a little more.
Number of beds: 450, including 90 in the almost completed
tuberculosis ward: the spread of the AIDS Virus (at
least 15% of the population in Gulu district has AIDS)
has multiplied the number of patients with active tuberculosis
by 10, making this ward a priority.
Doctors: 16 Ugandan, of which 3 specialists, 4 medical
officers and 9 interns.
Lucille and I are the only white doctors remaining.
Foreign specialists/experts are present on short missions
when we request from the Italian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs for the training of Ugandan doctors.
Hospital activity in the year 1/7/91 to 30/6/92: we admitted
11,595 patients (of which 4,869 children); and 104,240
patients were treated as out-patients; 1,200 major operations
and 2,636 minor operations were carried out,
there were726 deliveries, 9,188 antenatal examinations,
14,620 radiological and 3,120 ultrasound examinations;
248 endoscopies, 952 biopsies…
This is exclusively the Hospital activity, because the
three peripheral health centres of Opit, Amuru and
Pabo were raided and have not been active since ’86.
By comparison the activities of the Hospital alone in the
year 2011/12, illustrated in this year’s first newsletter show
that the total number of doctors and interns has doubled,
the number of patients admitted and treated at the out patient
department has doubled (this number does not include
the patients treated in the now active peripheral health
centres, which represent 30% of all Lacor patients), the
numbers of major operations have increased by four, the
deliveries by five, the number of ultrasound examinations
by almost ten times.
Since January 1991, Lacor Hospital is engaged with the
government health personnel in a vast program of primary
health care in the entire Gulu district.
When peace prevailed in nearly all of Uganda from the
early ‘90s (with the exception of the north), the Ugandan
Government, strongly supported by international aid, tried
to reconstruct the health sector, which however is still very
poor especially in the rural areas. Since the second half of
the ‘90s, the government invited the former mission hospitals
to share the national health strategy and in turn subsidizes
them. In spite of the inevitable difficulties, the public
– private partnership continues: the subsidy, or Government
of Uganda delegated funds, covered 8% of Lacor’s
operating costs last year. In 2003, the government founded
the country’s third faculty of medicine (the only one in the
north), of which Lacor as a university teaching site.
It must be pointed out that all the “common” patients who
are admitted (95% of the total) pay a 4 to 6 dollar fee,
everything included. Food is provided and prepared by
the relatives. For children under 6 any kind of treat-
4

Left: 1993, from left to right, Dr. Bruno Corrado, Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, Brother Elio Croce, Valeria Corrado, Dr. Piero Corti,
Dr. Lucille Teasdale, Sister Lina Soso, Lise Teasdale. Right: Piero talks to the traditional birth attendants in a village.
ment, either outpatient or admission, is free of charge.
Today, as for the past seven years, the Hospital has depended
financially mostly on Italian Government aid.
The total income from patients covers, more or less, 20-
25% of the recurrent costs, which were 270,000,000 Ugandan
shillings in 1991. This sum includes medicines we
buy in Uganda, current material and salaries.
Not even a future upturn of northern Uganda’s economy
would solve the problem because, naturally, salaries
and other costs would increase as well. Before the
increasingly difficult economic situation in Italy
forces the government to discontinue all the Ugandan
projects, we believe it is both necessary and urgent
to come up with something new, which we must “own”
completely and must be focused on Lacor Hospital’s
reality and needs. Something that can help cover the
running costs every year. Lucille and I have been oppressed
by this issue for the last couple of years and,
now that most of the old duties have been passed on
to the Uganda doctors, we believe that this has become
our most important duty towards the Hospital.
Since the late ’90s, with the escalation of the civil conflict in
northern Uganda, and the reduction of aid from the Italian
government, the Hospital relies mostly on aid from organisations
such as the Italian Episcopal Conference, ECHO (the European
Community Humanitarian Office), the Austrian and
Danish government aid, Terre Des Hommes-Holland, USAID.
WHAT FUTURE? THE FOUNDATIONS
Today we are convinced, together with our collaborators,
that the answer is to create an Italian and a
Canadian foundation. The initial steps have already
been taken: a first draft of the articles of incorporation
have been filled out with Mr. Botteon and Mr.
Enrico Citterio, and have been presented to the Notary
Mr. Giuseppe Gallizia from Milan. Some points remain
to be specified during the next meetings with the Notary,
then the long and complicated legal recognition
procedure will start.
In practical terms, establishing the Italian Foundation
implies putting together, in a few years, a capital
that will yield sufficient interest to cover the
Hospital’s annual running costs.. But it also implies
the capacity of exercising, thanks to these funds, a
fundamental task of control, so that Lacor Hospital’s
strategy and activities continue in the same direction
without coming to an end as has happened to
many other missionary hospitals and institutions in
developing countries.
In the Hospital’s future – as Lucille and I see itthe
Foundations and the Support Group should act
as a sort of “umbilical cord”: if it were to be cut,
everything and everyone would be severely penalized!
Thus intended, the Foundations and the Support Group
would realize everyone’s expectations: that Lacor Hospital
should continue, even when it will be completely
in Ugandan hands, to function without stopping or
losing efficiency and remaining true to its fundamental
duty, to help mostly the needy and the poor.
If you too, friends and readers, can believe in this
possibility, the present document’s message is an explicit
invitation to participate in the Group’s activities
and in the Foundations' success.
The present Bishop of Gulu, Mgr. Martin Luluga, completely
agrees with the program outlined above, and
also agrees with the people chosen to direct the Hospital
in the future. He too is convinced that without
adequate and permanent financial security that would
allow these people to lead the Hospital, all of this
would break down just like everything else.
Among these people, Dr. Matthew Lukwiya (who has been
The current President of the Board of Governors of Lacor
Hospital, Archbishop John Baptist Odama, who succeeded
Mgr. Luluga in 2000, has approved the program made by
Piero at the time and went further by granting the Hospital
a legal personality. He has been a steadfast defender of
the Hospital’s mission in favour of the poor, the needy and
“ngini-ngini” (the smallest ants of all).
5

working with us at Lacor for nine years and has been
Deputy Medical Director for the last two years) is, for
all of us, the best guarantee for the future: we do
not hesitate to define him as “an outstanding doctor
and person”. Even the Comboni missionaries expressed
themselves positively when we discussed these issues
with them, and we are hopeful that the support they
have constantly given to Lacor Hospital will continue
unswervingly in the future.
Dr. Matthew Lukwiya, Medical Director of Lacor, not only
proved to be an extraordinary doctor and person, he also
spearheaded the fight for the containment of the terrible
Ebola haemorrhagic fever in 2000 (a lethal outbreak that
spread in north Uganda and that he had personally identified).
He set up an isolation ward and led one hundred
members of the Hospital’s staff who volunteered to risk
their lives daily in caring for the sick in the isolation ward
and to bury the dead. He, along with 12 other of Lacor’s
staff died after having contracted the disease while fulfilling
their duty, thereby giving proof of exceptional heroism
and dedication.
We would like to conclude with some considerations
made by my brother, Rev. Corrado, a Jesuit missionary
priest in Chad. In a letter to us last December after a
visit to Gulu he writes:
"It is good to realize how much work has been done and continues
to be done. Every year, at Lacor, thousands of people
find a place where they can look to their future with a little
hope. Even the ones who will not recover their health, will have
found that, in this world, there are people who care about
them and their terrible problems, and who can help solve them
in some measure. How many have been to Lacor and have
drawn a benefit from it... the amount of work that has been
done is considerable. But
so too is the work laid out
for the future, thanks to the
structures that have been
realized and the human resources
that have been involved,
trained, motivated
and sustained in one complex
and huge project. For
all those who live close and
even far away, Lacor Hospital
is a reference point allowing
them to look at their own condition
with some hope and not
only darkness.
There is another aspect that
gives importance to this
46
As Piero had correctly foreseen, the improvement of economic
and social conditions in the country since the ’90s
determined an increase in costs, with a harder impact in
the north where war was still raging and preventing any
kind of development. The Italian Foundation, recognized by
the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1995, has grown to
be the major supporter of the Hospital particularly during
the period in which most emergency humanitarian organizations
abruptly withdrew their help following the end of
the conflict in the north in 2007. Moreover, the decrease in
bank interest rates had made it impossible to accumulate
enough capital to ensure covering the Hospital’s running
costs with the interest.
For the last two years, the Italian Foundation has sent all the
funds collected during each year and has had to draw on
the emergency funds that were set aside in the past thanks
to specific donations for this purpose.
In addition to raising funds and obtaining the necessary
equipments, the Foundations have an important role in
seeking those competences that are needed in order to
manage a complex system such as the Hospital, when
they cannot be found locally. In previous editions of this
newsletter, that you can consult at www.teasdalecorti.org
/newsletter, we highlighted several such projects as the
reorganisation of the pharmacy, human resources, IT and
management, launched at the request of the Hospital Management,
along with the shipment of medication thanks to
the Canadian Foundation.
complex reality that is St. Mary's Hospital Lacor. It is a
social reality, it is an organisation that functions and is officially
recognised. Outside Lacor, everything seems to be nonexistent,
corrupted or not functioning well. In such a scenario,
a complex like Lacor Hospital is a symbol of hope, a positive
factor that can stimulate recovery and restructuring just by
being there."
(The “reproducible model”
is a fixed idea of
ours’ for the past 30
years – Piero & Lucille).
"Finally, Lacor allows us
to perceive a certain role
of the church, and of
what it should be its essence…
it is difficult to
judge who is and who is
not perfect... But where
there is a small light, let
us care for it and give
that light space so that it
can shine brighter."
Piero and Lucille

Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Medicine at Lacor
I already visited St. Mary’s Hospital Lacor in 2007.
Together with my spouse, we were sent to evaluate the
hospital for a Quebec charitable foundation. It was a
special visit, because we were going to Lucille Teasdale’s
hospital and Lucille is my hero and role model.
As we were familiar with health care in Africa, we were
able to take a critical and unbiased look. We were impressed
by the quality of the care provided and the
efficiency of the organization. “One day I'll definitely
come back,” I told myself.
I am a physician and professor at the Department of
family medicine at Université de Sherbrooke, and a
co-director of an international health internship program
and a training program for health professionals
in Mali. As we could not send interns to Mali this year
because of the political, social and military situation
in the West African country, we turned to St. Mary’s
Hospital Lacor in Northern Uganda instead.
Our team consisted of a resident physician Roxanne
Gagné, a graduate nurse Marilyn Prévost, an experienced
family physician Dominique Mercier and me, François
Couturier, as the internship supervisor. We stayed for
four weeks, from November 18 to December 15, 2012.
We first stayed at the hospital for about ten days to
get to know the people and become familiar with the
resources, diseases and history of the country, the region
and the Hospital. Here are a few excerpts from
our collective diary:
pI was also impressed by the size of the hospital, which
includes more or less 425 beds, 6 operating rooms, recovery
room, severe burns unit, specialized outpatient clinics:
pediatrics, HIV, oncology, physiotherapy room, as well as
pathology, microbiology, hematology and biochemistry
laboratories.
p Both of them are in their mid-twenties and she is newly
pregnant. They have just learnt that they are both HIV-positive.
New information, discussions, the start of a triple
therapy for her, in order to achieve undetectable viral load
to protect the baby. They are calm and dignified and even
under such shock, they look like they are in love.
Then we travelled to the peripheral health centre in
Pabbo, an hour drive from the Hospital. There we
could really offer the best of ourselves as a nurse and
family physicians.
We were welcomed by the clinician Benedict Otii, midwives
Rose and Gloria, Sister Joyce, a nurse, nursing
aides and two lab assistants. We lived on site and shared
the basic living conditions and the heavy workload, took
care of adults and children, and delivered babies.
p I’m still entrenched in the Quebec health care mentality.
At times, I very much doubt my skills. The diseases and the
medication available are only understood to a certain point
and this makes it difficult for us to adapt. I think we would all
like to become efficient more quickly. We tend to forget that
it takes weeks, or even moths, to become at ease in a new
environment, be it here or back home. We are not here to
change the world, but to try to build a lasting partnership and
share our knowledge.
p Today is my birthday. After lunch, my colleagues surprised
me with a present packed in a box of crackers.
Dominique Corti went out of her way and managed to
order a nurse’s cap after getting the Lacor head nurse’s
permission. I’m all pretty with the lace cap on my head.
p The patients are afraid of the doctor and seem to fear
the imminent violence that physical contact represents.
They look completely destitute. I strongly suspect that
they suffer from collective post-traumatic stress disorder.
Twenty-six years of terror and atrocities committed on the
most vulnerable parts of the civilian population inevitably
leave some marks.
p It’s the end of a wonderful adventure. Pabbo was an
amazing place for an internship.
p Whether it was the fatigue or the nostalgia, nobody
spoke during our return journey. I was watching the landscape
out of the window, perhaps for the last time.
p It will definitely take some time to fully realize the impact
of what I’ve learnt; as I have no doubt that this experience
will make a difference, even for practising at home.
We would like to thank all those who welcomed us so
warmly, both at the hospital and at the centre in Pabbo.
Links have been forged and our world has expanded.
François Couturier
Left to right: Benedict Otii, Marilyn Prévost, Dominique
Mercier, François Couturier, midwife Rose, Roxane Gagné.
7

New donation programs
After the context changes brought by peace and security, and after the approval of the new 2012-
2017 Hospital Strategic Plan last June, the Foundation has decided to adapt its donation programs so
that they become more relevant to the Hospital’s needs. Three new possibilities of helping the Hospital
and the people who seek treatment at the Hospital, considered as a reference point, now exist.
Details for donations are as follows:
1. GENERAL DONATION
It remains a very important form of support because it allows us to give your help where the
need is greater depending on the current necessities.
2. TREAT A WOMAN
By participating in this program, you will guarantee obstetric-gynaecological services, general
and specialized (birth, admissions, operations, neonatal care), to Lacor patients.
This program aims at reducing maternity deaths and at improving the reproductive health in a
country where still 435 women die because of complications during birth out of every 100,000
live births, and where 20% of pregnancies occur during adolescence.
How many women do you want to help?
1 woman: $ 13
5 women: $ 65
10 women: $ 130
3. TREAT A CHILD
By participating in this program, you will guarantee, to patients under 6 years, general and specialized
paediatric services (clinic, admissions, surgical operations). This program is one of the objectives
in the National Health Plan to reduce infant mortality and to treat the weakest category
of the population.
How many children do you want to help?
1 child: $ 20
5 children: $ 100
10 children: $ 200
THE TEASDALE-CORTI FOUNDATION
The Teasdale-Corti Foundation is a charitable organization
created to contribute to the support of the Lacor Hospital
in northern Uganda.
Reg. N. : 890520745RR 0001
DONATIONS
Donations to the Teasdale-Corti Foundation can be sent
by mail to:
Teasdale-Corti Foundation
8880, boul. Lacordaire, St-Léonard,
QC, H1R 2B3 (CA)
or online: www.teasdalecorti.org
8
CONTACT
Filippo Campo - f.campo@teasdalecorti.org
Tel.: +1.514.253.1737
8880, boul. Lacordaire, St-Léonard, QC.
H1R 2B3 (CA)
TRANSLATION AND REVISION, our collaborators:
Roisin Grieco, Nikol Kvasnickova
NEWS FROM LACOR is a bulletin offered to all who
wish to receive news on the Lacor Hospital and the Teasdale-Corti
Foundation. It is published by Fondazione Piero e
Lucille Corti (Milan, Italy) and Teasdale-Corti Foundation
(Montreal, Canada).