South Sudan - Fr Omar Delasa: #time2share

08 January 2021

(ANS - Tonj) - Fr Omar Delasa, Salesian, originally from Rogno in the province of Bergamo, Italy, with a degree in medicine, lives and works in Sesto San Giovanni as a priest, but whenever possible he flies to South Sudan, to Tonj , where he founded TonjProject Onlus. The first time he went to Tonj was in 2007 and since then, with his volunteers, he has helped to create an obstetric and gynecological hospital with 50 beds and a minor surgery ward. In Tonj, wars and famines are the masters but they have not stopped Fr Omar who works on with energy and love. Marie Claire magazine interviewed him to talk about the #time2share project. An extract from the article is shown below.

What can you do for others right now and will you share for #time2share?

I'd like to help people go beyond appearances and discover realities that, in addition to not being taken for granted, hide a charm of their own. There are many forgotten lives; there are problems that nobody wants to take on. Around all this sadness that often takes the name of exclusion, poverty, war, hunger, there is the fantastic world of volunteers. I would like to give visibility to this "silent army" that changes its own life and at the same time that of many other people. I would like to introduce you to this world, introduce you to Tonj, its problems, its hospital, its children, their mothers ... the opportunity to dig a well, build a new photovoltaic system, set up scholarships, buy drugs, train health personnel ...

How was this passion of yours born?

This passion, which is much more to me, is a vocation, it was born by chance. From an early age I understood that the poor and the needy could have an important place in my life and in my choices, supported also by the testimony of my family, simple and available for us children and for everyone. I come from a very small village in the Bergamo mountains, where people know each other and help each other starting from the little things. These were some of the causes that led me to choose first the faculty of medicine and surgery and then the consecrated life in the Congregation of the Salesians of Don Bosco. South Sudan in general and Tonj in particular arrived later, almost by chance, following a request to try to experience myself in a missionary experience. In 2006, the year of my first appearance in the Salesian mission in Tonj, South Sudan did not yet exist. It was a region of Sudan, a country at war for 23 years to achieve independence. Here I have known suffering. A love was born that, thanks to the help of many good people, grows every day. Together with love, a hospital was born, scholarships, many small and large services, a flood of treated patients, wells, many things.

What would you like to learn from someone else?

I have a lot to learn. I would like to learn some professions, but what I admire and envy most in others is that disinterested availability that leads them to always be ready to do good. I would like to be understanding, attentive, always have a word of encouragement, a simple gesture that can instill confidence. I'd like to be more reflective and give more to those who have had less… and I know that the world, even if they don't make noise, is full of these willing and committed people.

InfoANS

ANS - “Agenzia iNfo Salesiana” is a on-line almost daily publication, the communication agency of the Salesian Congregation enrolled in the Press Register of the Tibunal of Rome as n 153/2007.

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