Paddle in hand, Brother
Dave Antonelli, S.J., first canoed a vessel
packed with CMMB-donated medicines and supplies
to families on the distant islands of Micronesia
in 1973. Thirty-five years later, inter-island
travel no longer requires a paddle—thanks to transportation developments—but
the healthcare needs of families on these remote
islands of Southeast Asia are still great.
Br. Antonelli knows these
islands and their people well. After four years
of military service in Vietnam, he joined the
Peace Corps in Micronesia as a field dispensary
medic. During his service, he met Jesuit brothers
from the New York Province’s
Mission of Micronesia, who currently oversee
160 students at Xavier High School in Chuuk.
Br. Antonelli joined the Jesuit efforts and has
been serving with them ever since, becoming a
Jesuit novice brother in 1993. He is also a licensed
physician’s assistant. He describes his
title at Chuuk’s Xavier High School as “Infirmarian/Dispensary
Worker/Health Educator/P.E. Teacher,” demonstrating
the diverse roles he fills at the school and
its clinic.
“We have had five outbreaks of dengue
fever in the years I have worked here, and the
CMMB-donated Tylenol was the best weapon we had
to fight the bug,” Br. Antonelli remembers.
CMMB has donated over US$300,000 in medicines
and supplies to the region in the last eight
years. These supplies are disseminated to not
only the Xavier High School clinic, but also
to three other school clinics on the island of
Chuuk that serve students and their families. “I
want all the benefactors and staff of CMMB to
know how many smiles they put on the faces of
people here in Micronesia, who many times have
no other source of medical supplies or aid.”
Catholic Medical
Mission Board is a non-profit, religious, 501 (c) (3) organization
that provides services and deliver aid without regard to creed, race,
sex, or national or political circumstance. Catholic Medical Mission
Board is a non-governmental organization in consultative status with
the Economic and Social Council (ESOSOC) of the United Nations. Gifts are deducibel to the full extent allowable under IRS regulations.
