Dear Readers,

Looking Backward in December, before looking Forward to the New Year 2007, my only regret is that so many treasured members of our Local and National Italian American Community entered eternal rest this year.

Hopefully happy memories will bring a small measure of comfort to those of us who miss them and remember them fondly.

Fr. Angelo D’Agostino, Jesuit Priest Medical Doctor (urologist), Psychiatrist, Nyumbani Orphanage founder in Nairobi, Kenya, for children with HIV, advocate for the country’s HIV infected children and long-time personal friend of mine since we met, in 1978, at an N.I.A.F. gala luncheon in Washington, D.C. when he admired the Italian button slogans decorating my hat (i.e. “Italian Hugs are Better than Drugs”, “Italians are a Work of Heart”, “The Nicest People have a Root in the Boot”, and especially “America, we discovered it, we named it, we Built it”) left us recently, November 20, 2006, at age 80, of a heart attack.

He had friends all over the globe, because he was a man of compassion who reached out to everybody.
Fr. D’Agostino, known affectionately to friends as D’Ag and at the orphanage as Father D’Ag was born January 26, 1926, in Providence, Rhode Island. The Rev. D’Agostino planned for a career in medicine. He graduated from medical school at Tufts University in Boston.

He joined Air Forced in 1953 and served as chief of urology at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington.
After completing military service in 1955, he joined the Jesuit order and also studied psychiatry.

He trained at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Washington from 1962 to 1967. He was ordained a priest in 1966.
Before settling in Kenya, the Rev. D’Agostino taught psychiatry for several years at Georgetown University and was chief of inpatient service at George Washington University Hospital.

He had a private practice in psychiatry and psychoanalysis in Washington, D.C. serving mostly the diplomatic corps and their families. He had a high success rate, because as both a priest and professional sworn to confidentially, patients were doubly sure their “business would not end up on the street” and they readily revealed what was bothering them.

His first job in Africa was as coordinator of a Jesuit Refugee Service Center in 1981. He wrote a letter upon his return which I shared in part with my readers:
“In June 1st, I left for a survey of refugee camps in Sudan. Little did I know what I was in for. Sudan has only recently settled a long war between the North(mostly Moslem) and the South(mostly Christian). The Moslems are for the most part Arabs while the Southerners are native black tribesmen. It is not only these differences that have caused the animosity, but also the memory of the northern Arabs raiding the South and taking thousands away to be sold into slavery. It seems that many black Americans have ancestors in this part of the world.

In a place called Loa, the priest in charge is himself a refugee from Uganda. Fr. Bertuzzi, a Comboni father, was carried out of Uganda on a wheelbarrow, because his legs gave out. Although along in years he is doing a great job for the refugees and has made a makeshift hospital in a small room where I saw a dozen very sick people.

There is a doctor who visits once in three months, otherwise, Fr. Bertuzzi is the only one to give any help to them and to the thousands of refugees in this area. For this reason, I plan to bring a mobile medical team as soon as possible. It gets quite cold here at night and they have no blankets, so I left some money to purchase some locally and will try to send more from Juba.

I proceed to Port Sudan on the Red Sea. The flight out was scheduled for 6:30p.m.: well every couple of hours we were told to come back so that we finally left at 5:00 a.m., sleeping on benches, etc. You can understand then why Sudan Airways is variously spoken of as: 1) Sudan Scareways; 2) In sh’Allah Airways (In sh’Allah being Arabic for “if God Wills it”); 3) “If you don’t care, have time to spare, go Sudan Air!”.

In 1992, he founded Nyumbani Orphanage, which means “home” in Swahili, in a rented house with three orphaned children in residence. Now the 5-acres complex includes a health clinic, a medical laboratory, a school, and a cemetery for the young residents who died of AIDS.
The orphanage can accommodate up to 100 children. Currently the youngest is 6 months old; the oldest is 24.

The staff of about 76 nurses, teachers, cooks and gardeners.
In 1998, as an outreach of the orphanage, the Rev. D’Agostino launched a community service program that supplies medicine, clothing and other necessities to HIV-infected children who live in the area.

His latest project, Nyumbani Village, in Kitui, Kenya, will open within a few weeks. It is a residence for the elderly and their grandchildren.

The AIDS epidemic in Africa has all but wiped out the middle generation of adults who traditionally take care of both their older parents and their children. Nyumani Village allows the older and younger family generations to stay together.

The Rev. D’Agostino once sued the government of Kenya when children of Nyumbani were turned away by some local public schools because they tested positive for HIV.

The judge ruled in the Rev. D’Agostino’s favor in January 2004, guaranteeing that children with HIV are allowed to attend government schools.
Fr. D’Ag had friends all over the world and through the years had volunteers from many countries serving at Nyumbani. He has left Nyumbani with separate board of directors in Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States. The orphanage is funded primarily by private contributions.

His friends in Washington D.C. organized an Annual Nyumbani Benefit which Fr. D’Agostino faithfully attended. This year the Nyumbani Annual Benefit was held at the Renaissance Washington Hotel, 999 9th St., NW Washington D.C. and featured Cabaret Singer Steve Ross and Mistress of Ceremonies Kathleen Matthews, ABC News Anchor in Washington, D.C.

Before his death Fr. D’Ag was happy to learn that thanks to the generosity of his Irish friends, the Irish government and the persuasive appeal of Sister Mary Owens the Nyumbani team has been able to construct four, 2-story hostels that can accommodate from 12 to 16 older children per house. Two houses are up to roof level already and should be ready for occupation soon.

He was also notified that Nyumbani will receive a $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to expand the very successfully Lea Toto community outreach program. After a thorough (55-page) evaluation of the current program by a USAID committee, he received a favorable ruling. In fact, it was so favorable, they were asked to expand the program from the current 2,000 clients to 4,000 clients by 2009.

Besides expansion recommendations the USAID committee made for Lea Toto were to develop programs to prevent mother to child transmission and to create a one-stop place that children and their caregivers can go to receive help.
At his latest project, Nyumbani Village, in Kitui, Kenya, a residence for the elderly and their grandchildren, Fr. D’Ag pointed out how one volunteer can have a huge impact.

Kitui, which was once a semi-arid, barren area in Kenya, is now a flourishing oasis producing vegetables and fruits for local markets.

This is an incredible miracle helped along in great part by American volunteer Aldo Magazzeni who deserves our gratitude for his help putting together a functional water system in just three months. The system provides abundant water for homes, water for drip irrigation and other agricultural needs. Without that water the Village could not have survived.

Fr. Angelo D’Agostino is survived by a brother, Joseph, of Fairfax, Va., and a sister, Sister Savina, a Catholic nun in the order of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary in Providence, RI.

Tax deductible donations in memory of Fr. D’Agostino can be made to “Children of God Relief Fund, Inc. Nyumbani-USA” 3050 K Street NW, Suite 400, Washington, D.C. 20007. Telephone message line: (703) 934-8534 or (202) 342-8488. Website: www.nyumbani.org

Arrivederci 2006!

 

10631 Vinedale Street, Sun Valley, CA 91352 - Phone (818) 767-3413 - Fax: (818) 767-1410