02 Jan Milete and Abraham – dangerous accidents
Milete is in year 3 at the Adwa Mission primary school. She walks to school every day from her family’s house. Her mother brings herds of sheep out to pasture each day.
On a day like any other, Milete was walking home from the Kidane Mehret school. But that October day, she was hit by a car and suffered severe injuries.
She barely survived: broken bones, extensive abrasions and damaged internal organs are usually a death sentence in Adwa. She underwent intestinal surgery with complications that were nearly impossible for the local hospital to manage.
Sister Laura remembers: “We and her parents decided to discharge her from the hospital, where she had developed blood poisoning from the lack of hygiene and appropriate dressings.
We said to each other: “…at the mission, if she dies, at least she’ll die in a clean place”.
We treated her every day after that, with long-distance support from doctor friends in Padua. The countless hours spent by her side.
The whirlwind trip to Italy to get medicine and sterile materials for the dressings. Our hopes were up and down for three months but in the end, the little one got better, she’s ALIVE and back at school”.
Lovingly helped by Sister Betty and Sister Pauline, along with her father, she bravely faced painful dressings and a long recovery.
Today, we are truly happy to say that she is completely healed, she has regained the intestinal functions that were compromised and can walk again. She is earning top marks again. With the support of long distance adoption, she is back on track with her studies.
Heartfelt thanks to Dr. Marinaro and to the many doctors, nurses, and chemists friends who found the medical devices we needed, to the Sisters of Cottolengo, to the company Alpretek that donated materials for tissue regeneration… to Sister Laura who never gave up and jumped through hoops to save Milete!
Abraham was a street urchin. His parents had abandoned him. He scavenged for food in rubbish tips to survive.
But one day, he put his hand right where a bomb was hidden…Probably a remainder from the civil war in the 90s!
Operated on by volunteer doctors from Padua and adopted long-distance, he now attends our school and shares his life with the other orphans who live at the mission.