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This Health Center near Porto-Novo is being developed to become a zone hospital recognized by the Beninese government. This is where patients of the Saint-Camille in Benin are treated free of charge for physical health problems. The regional population also has access to this service, at reduced cost. Steps are underway to ensure that the Health Center is recognized as meeting the governmental standards that apply to the rest of the national network. We are supporting our partner in this project: sending a container of equipment via Collaboration Santé Internationale, purchasing equipment on-site to set up a surgery room, erecting a building to house the medical staff, etc. Other developments are to be planned for the year 2022.  The Saint-Camille can count on us.

The network of religious and lay Dominicans in Canada and abroad has mobilized for the construction of a Medical Clinic at the Center of Tokan-Cotonou (Benin) following the request of Grégoire. We joined them to complete this project (currently underway) by acquiring medical equipment through the Roncalli Foundation. We will also finance the end of its construction. The following services are planned: digital radiology, medical analysis laboratory, ultrasound, electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram and colonoscopy. This $194,000 project (for its start-up) will significantly increase the quality of medical services for the patients being treated at the Saint-Camille. (It is a free service for them.)  A further benefit is that these services will be available to the population of Cotonou at a reduced cost.

We invite you to take the time to read our latest communication, sent to all our members, which presents our activity report for 2020, in addition to giving the latest news on our current projects.

Communication – Amis de la Saint-Camille – Septembre 2021

Become a member

Along with two St. Camille network partners in Europe and the United States, we have been active in presenting Grégoire and St. Camille as candidates for international awards. Last year, Grégoire was the recipient of the Guislain Prize “Breaking the Chains of Stigma in Mental Health”. Now he has just received the Geneva Prize for “Human Rights in Psychiatry”. He is also a finalist for the Aurora Foundation’s “Humanitarian of the Year” Award. These well-deserved international recognitions help publicize the work of Grégoire and his team for the benefit of Africans affected by mental illness.     

To meet the need for increased services at the Saint-Camille Hospital in Bouaké, Ivory Coast, we were
able to take advantage of a donation requested from the Louise Grenier Foundation. An unused space
will be converted into a maternity ward with a delivery room, mother-child services and pre- and post-
natal classes. Two midwives paid by the Ivorian government will be assigned to this facility. Budget
allocated: $17,000.

Mission Inclusion has offered us funding for social reintegration activities. Following discussions with
Grégoire, a six-hectare cashew tree plantation and vegetable garden is being developed on the large
plot of land of the new treatment and recovery centre in Sokodé, Togo. The project will be carried out
with the significant contribution of patients. They will be paid at the end of their treatment, and their
work will also help prepare them for their return to their farming environment: it will improve their
physical fitness, help them regain good working habits, etc. The men will do the heavy work (clearing,
land preparation, planting, etc…) while the women will do work that is typical for them in rural
environments (planting, sowing, harvesting, food preparation, etc…). An irrigation system is included in
the project. Cost: $39,900. 

Addition of new services to the Health Center of Adjarra in the suburbs of Porto-Novo, the country’s capital. Following the recent shipment of a container in partnership with Collaboration Santé Internationale and the Roncalli Foundation, we were able to send the equipment needed to set up a dentistry service. A small surgical center has also been added thanks to the involvement of Sister Monique Bourget and her family’s foundation. This Quebec nun, a doctor living in Benin, is making an important contribution to the Saint-Camille after her long experience in development in Brazil. This center offers physical health care at no cost to the patients of Saint Camille, and at reduced cost to the local population.  We financed its construction in 2012-2013. Obstetrics, general medicine, optometry, a laboratory, ultrasound, dentistry and a small surgery center tests are already available. A Brazilian surgical mission is planned for next September.