La sua Africa. Maria Bonino e la cooperazione a sud del Sahara

50 years after the first trip of pediatrician Maria Bonino to Africa, the photographer Elvezio Pagani proposes a series of shots on everyday life in the southern hemisphere

Maria Bonino was born in Biella in 1953 and graduated in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Turin in 1978. A few years later she left for Tanzania, where she became head of the pediatric ward of the Ikonda hospital and later of the pediatric ward with annexed unit for malnourished children at the Tenkodogo hospital in Burkina Faso. Between 1992 and 2003 Maria carried out assignments in various African countries in the context of international cooperation programs. Since October 2004 unsuccessfully reported the appearance of suspicious deaths from haemorrhagic fever to the Ministry of Health in the capital Luanda. In February 2005, he verified a resurgence of cases of haemorrhagic fever, all of which were fatal. On 16 March Maria complained of the first symptoms and on 20 March she was transported by plane to Luanda, where she died on 24 March 2005.

Elvezio Pagani, electromechanical and photographer, left for Africa for the first time in 1995 to join his daughter who, at the end of her academic studies, carried out voluntary work in Uganda. In 2004 he travels to Chad and in 2006 he arrives in Tanzania and gets to know the situation of the Ikonda hospital, a place where he will return one month a year for 11 years, photographing the surrounding reality and dealing with various volunteer projects