On 25 October 2022 Anna Rita Corciulo went up to heaven.
It is not an easy path that we have undertaken together, but it is the only one that can allow us not to live a useless life.
Anna Rita Corciulo, colleague and friend of AVSI
With her husband Vito Schimera, a surgeon, she worked for AVSI in Uganda, in Kitgum, from 1991 to 1996, assisting people affected by AIDS and their orphans. Anna contributed to giving life to the first “Meeting Point”, which was then also launched in Hoima and Kampala and over the years became the heart of AVSI's Distance Support project in Uganda.
Back to Italy, Anna continued her commitment with AVSI in particular by promoting Distance Support, through the school project "So I hug a friend" and her book "My home is where I bring my heart" and by founding the “Icaro AVSI friends” association and the “House of smiling” which welcomes children with physical, mental and social discomfort.
In 2019 Anna, with the newly retired Vito, quits her job as a nurse and together they leave for Uganda, this time in Gulu. While Vito works as a surgeon at Lacor St. Mary's Hospital, Anna collaborates with brother Elio Croce in the management and above all in the educational setting of the St. Jude Children's Home orphanage, which houses 90 children with disabilities, AIDS patients and abandoned.
At the end of 2021, returning to Italy for Vito's serious health problems, Anna was diagnosed with the serious illness that led to her death.
We remember Anna, her enthusiasm, her creativity, her energy with one of her words: "It is not an easy path that we have undertaken together, but it is the only one that can allow us not to live a useless life".