El Pajaro Azul, a Spanish foundation, has proposed Sister Angela Gutiérrez, Sister Hospitaller, who has been developing the hospital mission in our center of Kinshasa for 30 years, for the Princess of Asturias award for concord 2020.
Our sister is a native of Panes (Asturias), and at 73 years old, continues to demonstrate that, with work, effort and affection, there are barriers that can be broken down by working daily at our Telema mental health center in Kinshasa, where she is cared for daily. currently up to more than a hundred people with mental illness.
When she arrived in Kinshasa 30 years ago, seeing the situation of abandonment that these people suffer, she decided to create a place to pick them up, attend to them and give them opportunities.
Sister Angela, along with other hospital sisters, mostly collects these patients from the street, and takes them to the Telema center, where they receive the necessary psychiatric treatment from medical professionals and nurses.
Once they receive the treatment, depending on the state they are in, they begin to carry out tasks and jobs that help them improve their state of health. Patients who are sicker do the more mechanical jobs, and as they get better they move on to another phase where they do things that require more creativity and attention.
Kinshasa Telema Center
Throughout the year at the Telema Center more than 40,000 consultations are made to psychiatric patients. This implies a large pharmaceutical expense that they sustain with their own means.
The work that our sister Angela does is highly valued by the Congolese and the country’s aid workers.
From Sisters Hospitallers, we offer our support and show our appreciation in their fight for the rights of these people, and in the care of the poorest and most disadvantaged.
We encourage you to support the proposal of El Pájaro Azul Foundation, and to sign the letter of support for our sister Angela Gutierrez to win the Princess of Asturias Award for Concord 2020, which she so deserves.
We leave you more information about the work of Sister Angela Gutiérrez, in this Did you Knew what from 2017.
