Annalena Tonelli

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Annalena Tonelli (1961)

Annalena Tonelli (born April 2, 1943 in Forlì , Italy ; † October 5, 2003 in Boorama , Somaliland / Somalia ) was an Italian lawyer and political activist.

Tonelli first studied law in her home country and after completing his studies went to Africa at the age of 26 to do humanitarian work there. At 27, she became an English teacher in northwest Kenya and attended courses in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis in Nairobi , graduated in tropical and community medicine in London and learned about the treatment of leprosy in Spain .

In 1986 Tonelli moved to Somalia . She distributed food in Mogadishu during the civil war and treated tuberculosis patients in southern Somalia. Tonelli later founded a hospital in Boorama in Northern Somalia / Somaliland , where it mainly treated tuberculosis, AIDS and eye diseases. Together with German doctors, she helped 3,700 Africans to be cured of cataracts and to learn to see again. In addition, she founded a school for handicapped children in Somalia and trained nursing staff.

Tonelli also spoke out against the circumcision of women and girls and convinced many traditional circumcisers in Boorama to give up this custom and support their campaign.

Tonelli was motivated by her Christian faith, but she did not do missionary work. She said: I left Italy to bear witness to the Gospel with my life, following in the footsteps of Charles de Foucauld . For 33 years I preached the gospel with my life alone, and I burned with the desire to continue to do so until the end. This is what motivates me deeply, along with an invincible passion for the suffering and oppressed across all barriers of race, culture and belief.

Revered like a saint in the Somaliland region, she lived modestly and worked for her sick for up to 20 hours a day. In 2002 she was awarded the honorary title of Commendatore della Republica Italiana by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi . In April 2003 she received the UN Nansen Refugee Award for her work to alleviate the plight of refugees in Geneva .

On October 5, 2003, Tonelli was shot dead by strangers in her hospital.

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