See also the WSF World Social Forum 2007, Kenya.
She is one of the 1000 women proposed for the Nobel Peace Price 2005.
She says: « I receive more than I give. In the hospice I feel God’s presence. I see him in Emmanuel’s smile, feel him at Aimé’s bedside, and recognize him in the gestures of blind Felix. This is my place ».
She says also: « It was in Abidjan in 2002. I was sitting in my car, when I felt irritated by a sickly smell, like that of a rotting animal. I got out of the car to find out where the irritating smell was emanating from. I found a man lying in a hole near the street, wrapped in a garbage bag. He was totally dehydrated. Although ants were crawling out of his ears and mouth, he was still breathing. When he finally looked at me I asked him how long he had been lying there, and he answered that he did not know. As I left to get help he whispered, ‘I am Monsieur René.’ The slum dwellers knew that he had been lying there for at least ten days and had occasionally brought him food and water. With their help, we took René to an outpatient clinic, where he stayed for a week. This is what inspired me to set up a hospital for dying Aids victims ».
See her Homepage Lotti Latrous.
See also the Fondation Lotti Latrous.
Lotti Latrous – Côte d’Ivoire
Lotti Latrous was born in 1953. She has lived in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Abidjan, the economic capital of Côte d’Ivoire, where she did volunteer work at the local Mother Theresa Hospital. The contrast between the miseries she witnessed in Abidjan and her privileged life inspired her to found an outpatient clinic in Adjouffou, a slum in Abidjan.
In 2002 she opened a hospice for Aids patients. Her next project is to open an orphanage for children whose parents have died of Aids.
She grew up in the Swiss canton of Zurich, where she met the love of her life, Aziz Latrous from Tunisia, who was then working as an au pair in Geneva. They married and had three children, now aged 25, 24 and 16. Lotti followed her husband, who become a Director at Nestlé, to a privileged life in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Her project received the full support of her husband.
The hospital had barely been opened in 1999, when Nestlé transferred her husband to Cairo. The charismatic Lotti would not abandon her work and made a deal with her family – she would alternate between spending two months in Cairo and one in Abidjan. As this did not prove feasible in the long run, her husband asked her to stay with her family, but only if she wanted to, because he feared that her love would turn into hatred.
Thereafter Lotti decided to settle down in Adjouffou, a decision which despite greatly affecting her marriage and family, did not break either. The Latrous’s visit each other regularly. Meanwhile Lotti is working on her new project – building a home for mothers and children. (Read all on 1000peacewomen 2005).
The Lotti Latrous Foundation was established on 28th October 2004 and is registered in the Commercial Register of Switzerland. The Board of Trustees likes to inform you that in view of the present political situation in the Ivory Coast all the donations go to a Swiss Bank Account with the Union Bank of Switzerland and there is no danger that the money will be put under requisition by the state.
Irrespective of whatever happens in the Ivory Coast the money donated by you will be used only for the purpose of the Foundation as laid down in the constitution. As per the aim of the Foundation Lotti Latours can transfer her activity also to another African country. The aim has been laid down as follows in the bylaws: “The money of the Foundation will be used for Aids projects in any country of Black Africa.”
For Donations from Switzerland: UBS AG, Switzerland, « Stiftung Lotti Latrous », Account Nr. 0240-428 654. 00E, Post Check Account of the Bank. 80-2-2, Clearing Nr.: 0240, (IBAN : CH44 0024 0240 4286 5400 E, Adresse SWIFT (BIC) : UBSWCHZH80A).
Read: Basic Principles of HIV and Aids.
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