From the 11th to 13th May Coopermondo made his first exploratory mission in Albania on the invitation of MAGI Euregio, a cooperative from Bolzano, that has opened a research center and laboratory for genetic and rare diseases, putting solidarity and the right to health at the center of its internationalization. The three days full have been full of satisfactions for the cooperative associated to FederazioneSanità – Confcooperative and the mission ended with an institutional meeting at the Office of the Italian Development Cooperation (UTL) in Tirana.
The Albanian version of MAGI Euregio is called MAGI Balkans and conducts laboratory, diagnostic and research on genetic and rare diseases: “It ‘the only center of the kind in Albania and we are very pleased to be able to answer and offer quality services to Albanian citizens”, said the President of MAGI Euregio, Matteo Bertelli.
“For us it is important that those who come to the center with many doubts about their medical condition may become aware of their disease,” continued Bertelli, explaining that the mission of MAGI Balkans, shared with its own members, “is to give patients a name to the genetic disease that affect them and that medicine often confuses with excess of stress or psychic disorders”. The center, which also serves as a laboratory for blood tests and physiotherapy center, is animated by many volunteers, especially Italian and Albanian young students and researchers .
“It ‘s great to see the energy that animates MAGI Balkans, a center of true cooperation, under the banner of the right to health and well-being of the person,” said Danilo Salerno, Director of Coopermondo. “The activities of MAGI are very well known and well regarded by the local Italian development cooperation”, he continued, “and the ability to structure the activity and the possibility of our cooperative movement in the area through Italian and Europeans funds are really interesting, not only in the area of Health and social cooperation, but also in agriculture, which is a priority for the country and for the EU”.
The impressions of this visit can be summarize in a true story that is worth telling, collected by volunteers of the MAGI Balkans in their clinical diaries (the name of the main character is fictional):
Mathilde is 21 years old, is a native of Ulez, but she moved to Tirana to study because her dream was to become a nurse.
For two years, however, she suffers from heart attacks. The doctors said she was over-stressed, diagnosed her with depression and, in the name of mental health problems, prescribed her psychotropic drugs. But Mathilde knew she was not depressed and she felt discriminated as a person, as a woman, as a worker.
After several months Mathilde turned to Magi Balkans, a medical center born from an Italian cooperative that has decided to internazionalize her research center on rare and genetic diseases, moved from the awareness that poverty also means lack of opportunity and rights, as the right to health. At Magi Balkans, after a few visits, Mathilde has discovered that his heart attacks depend on a genetic disease, the Raynaud’s Syndrome.
Today Mathilde can give a name to her disease and she knows who she can struggle to. She is lucky, Mathilde has won her right to health. Tomorrow she will talk with his friends and his community.Living well is to cooperate.
