Mobile medical unit from Vatican hits Rome's peripheries to help poor
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IMAGE: CNS/Paul HaringBy Carol GlatzVATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A mobile medical unit donated by theVatican tours Rome's peripheries, offering free health care to thosein need. A local volunteer association of doctors, health careprofessionals and medical students use the white and blue-striped RV-stylevehicle, which carries Vatican City license plates and the Holy See's coat ofarms -- two keys topped by a papal crown. Dr. Lucia Ercoli, director the Istituto di MedicinaSolidale, told the Vatican newspaper that using a medical unitwith Vatican license plates lets the migrants, "who live in truly inhumaneconditions" in the forgotten corners of Rome, see and experience "thecloseness of the pope and the church."Of the people they serve, many are women, includingexpectant mothers, as well as children, people who have been tortured in theirhome country and parents whose children drowned in the sea during their dangerousjourney to Italy, she said in an interview published July 13.The associati...
IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Carol Glatz
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A mobile medical unit donated by the
Vatican tours Rome's peripheries, offering free health care to those
in need.
A local volunteer association of doctors, health care
professionals and medical students use the white and blue-striped RV-style
vehicle, which carries Vatican City license plates and the Holy See's coat of
arms -- two keys topped by a papal crown.
Dr. Lucia Ercoli, director the Istituto di Medicina
Solidale, told the Vatican newspaper that using a medical unit
with Vatican license plates lets the migrants, "who live in truly inhumane
conditions" in the forgotten corners of Rome, see and experience "the
closeness of the pope and the church."
Of the people they serve, many are women, including
expectant mothers, as well as children, people who have been tortured in their
home country and parents whose children drowned in the sea during their dangerous
journey to Italy, she said in an interview published July 13.
The association of medical volunteers has been active
since 2004, she said. They partner with other nonprofit groups and the church
to staff makeshift clinics and offer services in places of great need.
As of last summer, they started providing services once a
week to a church-run center for immigrants near a city train station.
"Hundreds of people," she said, would show up
Saturday mornings to get a check-up "and we could do so thanks entirely to
the almoner's office that supplied us with the medicines."
The Vatican almoner's office also offered the camper-like
medical unit, and now there is a more private setting for patients that better respects
their dignity, and the unit is outfitted with needed equipment, she said.
"Thanks to the Vatican camper, so far we have seen
more than 2,000 people" by heading to shanty towns and abandoned buildings
where the poor and homeless seek shelter, rather than wait for them at a
volunteer center.
The Istituto di Medicina Solidale has also been providing medical care for those in need every Monday at a first
aid station near the colonnade at St. Peter's Square, again with support from the papal almoner's office, which is funded by charitable contributions from Pope
Francis and private donors.
The first aid station for the poor was opened in February,
joining the other services -- showers, bathrooms and a unisex salon -- which
opened under the colonnade in early 2015.
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Follow Glatz on Twitter: @CarolGlatz.
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