A special birthday was celebrated in Blantyre, Malawi

Ten years of a dream for Malawi: the DREAM programme

Marco Impagliazzo, on his visit to Malawi, celebrated today with activists, patients and staff, the ten years of the DREAM programme by visiting the Mandala Centre, in the centre of Blantyre.

The anniversary was an occasion to remember the more than 20,000 children born healthy to HIV positive mothers in the past ten years, and the thousands of activists that have helped to achieve these results.

Among them, there are more than 5000 women that contribute, through their witness, to save the lives of many sick children, men and women. In the ten years of the Programme their commitment has profoundly changed the culture of exclusion and prejudice that condemn those affected by the virus.

For many of them DREAM has meant the return to life, thanks to the free and constant care: a true Resurrection Gospel in a country where prejudice, poverty and lack of resources and care threaten life and make it brittle. Ten years of history, ten years of life that is reborn every day.

In Machingiri, on the outskirts of Blantyre, 600 children have lunch at the St. John Paul II Nutritional Centre every day, while in the afternoon they join the activities that the Community prepares for them every week.

It is at the Centre that Marco Impagliazzo held, on the morning of 21 April, a press conference to present the BRAVO programme, for free birth registration.

The Community of Sant'Egidio started this programme in the rural district of Balaka, precisely in 13 maternity wards of small rural hospitals, which will soon be connected by computer to the central public administration.

The President of the Community stressed that this programme defends children and promotes their rights, from the time when they are born. He recalled how in the colonial era civil registry recording was reserved only for foreigners.

The work of BRAVO, in collaboration with the Malawian government, represents a step towards complete decolonization, eventually spreading to all citizens the right to be registered at the civil registry. A law of 2010, in fact, being implemented, recognises this right to every citizen. BRAVO intends to make this right real. The press conference was held, significantly, while a people of children started lunch at the John Paul II Centre.