Salesian Missions Helps Ship Medical Supplies for African Clinic

Salesian Missions Helps Ship Medical Supplies for African Clinic

(ANS – Bangui, Central African Republic – October 16, 2025) – Salesian missionaries in Bangui had the supplies needed for a medical clinic thanks to a shipment of goods funded in part by Salesian Missions of New Rochelle. The shipment was sent by Collaboration Santé Internationale (International Health Collaboration), a Canadian organization focused on responding to the needs of health centers in developing countries. 

Funding for the shipment was provided by both Salesian Missions and Don Bosco Foundation Paris. The shipment contained electric hospital beds, neonatal incubators, exam tables, filing cabinets, lab coats, amoxicillin, quinine, first aid supplies, and vitamins. 

The medical clinic was completed with funding from the French government through Don Bosco Foundation Paris. Don Bosco Foundation Paris requested assistance from Salesian Missions with funding for the shipment and also because it has extensive experience in shipping humanitarian aid around the globe. 

“Partnerships help ensure that medical supplies and other critical humanitarian aid reaches those most in need,” said Fr. Michael Conway, director of Salesian Missions. “While education is the priority for Salesians around the globe, they also focus on ensuring that those in poverty have their basic needs met including essential medical care.”

Since 1996, Collaboration Santé Internationale has been the only nonprofit and international cooperation organization accredited by the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services to recover and give a second life to surplus health care supplies for humanitarian aid purposes. Since its founding, the organization has sent the equivalent of $250 million in medical equipment, supplies, and medicines to support several hundred health centers in more than 90 countries.

The Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries on the African continent — despite being very rich in resources such as uranium, gold, and diamonds. It is also very unstable politically due to the regime changes and civil wars that have occurred over the last 20 years. According to the World Bank, in 2024, approximately 71% of people lived below the international poverty line, with 65.7% living on less than $2.15 per day. The infant mortality rate is among the highest in the world, and the most common causes are diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, respiratory infections, and acute malnutrition.