My name is Maria Luisa Rotatori. I was born in Corinaldo (AN), Italy on November 17th, 1944. After high school I attended nursing school, and worked as a nurse in various hospitals until I retired in 1993. My first experience abroad was in Brazil in 1991, where I was for a month to work in a center for the cure of leprosy. Since 1996 I have been more and more living in the Ivory Coast (see below). 

1. THE PROJECT

Since 1996, the first time I went to the Ivory Coast, at Yakassé-Feyassé, and then all the times I went there, the more often I went and the longer I stayed, I got to know the situation of the place, the necessities of the people, and I realized that I needed a religious community to back me and help me continue my aid work. Therefore, I had the idea to look for a religious mission, which might make my work more stable and effective. In 2000 I met the "Congregation of the Holy Dominican Nuns of the Holy Sacrament", who were seeking a place in the Ivory Coast to found a religious house. In order to do that, we started to look for financial assistance. The Providence made me meet Dr. Tommaso Rossi, a very sensitive person who had recently lost his wife in an accident. His wife had dedicated much of her life to help the unfortunate, and he continued on her legacy. In order to honor her memory, Dr. Rossi wanted to accomplish something concrete. During a meeting at a local church in which I was explaining my project, he heard me speaking and wished to meet me, willing to help me, especially financially. I, considering his determination, dared to propose an even larger project for Yakassé-Feyassé. Dr. Rossi has not only backed it, but he also expanded its size. In fact, he offered to help me build a vast complex comprising the house for the nuns, a preschool for the alphabetization of the kids and for nutrition classes, a lab for the girls, a house to host volunteers, a church for the religious community and a hospital equipped with an O.R., a lab for analyses, a gynecology and midwife section with birth room. After a very short time devoted to delineate the project, thanks to a donation of the king of Yakassé-Feyassé, who happily gave us some land, we began the works. So far, we have build (and are currently functioning) the house for the nuns and the preschool with its two sections (alphabetization and nutrition information). On June 6th, 2005 we have inaugurated the hospital, though it is not yet completely furnished and equipped.

2. MOTIVATIONS OF THE PROJECT

a. To make ones life available to help other, especially those who are in greater need.

b. To the public opinion of the rich world, so prone to create vain necessities, the real needs of people who lack everything, who has little or no social and medical assistance from the State.

c. To the locals, above all young men and women, that they need an instruction to improve their conditions.

d. To help them get together and unite their strengths to work better and produce, and to be stronger and compact in marketing their products to the Western World.

3. FUTURE ACTIVITIES 

a. Completion of the project with the building of the church and of the volunteer house. 

b. To acquire the necessary equipment to complete the hospital and make it functional. 

c. To create local rural cooperatives to self-manage their cultivations and the marketing of their local products.

4. DREAM

Forward notice: In Ivory Coast only few villages have schools. During the academic year, therefore, girls and boys are hosted by local families. In order to pay for their food and lodging, on Wednesdays and Saturdays, when the schools are closed, they work in the fields. In this house, however, they often sleep altogether, with the consequence that very young girls get frequently pregnant, and thus contribute also to the spreading of HIV, which is already very much spread. MY DREAM: it is to realize a center for at least 50 girls of middle school level, with sleeping and study rooms, so as to keep them from staying with hosting families, where they often come in touch with a promiscuous environment and not fit for studying. This would result in social, moral and cultural improvement of the female population. The woman is indeed considered not more than an object to use and abuse rather than a person with her own life, dignity and freedom.