Members of charity visit local health care providers
A health care team visiting from Italy recently toured with local health care providers at the Uniontown Hospital. These five individuals represented the Audia Caring Heritage Association (ACHA). ACHA is a non-profit charity that addresses health concerns both locally and globally with the mission to “assist communities in need and improve their quality of life.”
The Audia Caring Heritage Association is considered a young charity because it began in the fall of 2000 when Albert Andy of Washington County organized a meeting with a group of friends and associates that have a heart for helping people.
At this meeting, Albert shared the experiences he had while visiting the small mountain town of San Giovanni in Fiore, Cosenza, in southern Italy in 1998. He had gone there with the desire to learn more about his heritage and the region from which his family had immigrated to America.
Albert located the house where his father was born and counted on the townspeople, in part, to learn about the history and culture. Their hospitality made an impression, and he returned to Washington, wanting to make a difference in an area of Italy that has lost most of its farming industry and where many residents live in poverty.
Albert’s many volunteer supporters subsequently formed the Audia Caring Heritage Association dedicated to assisting communities in need. Albert decided that helping the local hospital in San Giovanni would result in helping the most people.
Nearly four years after his first visit, the association has had several fundraisers and donations, which resulted in raising $50,000 to purchase a CT scanner and video laparascope for the hospital, making improvements to the facility’s diagnostic unit and supplying emergency vehicles with life-support equipment.
Albert now serves as the chairman of the non-profit organization’s board of trustees.
The San Giovanni in Fiore project took priority, but the association has also donated money to projects in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
As the enthusiasm for this new charity grew, volunteers from Pittsburgh and Morgantown joined the team and established additional support groups. The Pennsylvania and West Virginia chapters recently joined efforts to fund the Educational Exchange Program that brought three doctors and a radiological technologist from the hospital in San Giovanni in Fiore, Italy, to Uniontown Hospital.
Jack Kraus, M.D., medical director of the Uniontown’s Hospital anesthesia department, coordinated the visit and tour.
While touring at Uniontown Hospital, the visiting anesthesiologist, urologist and vascular surgeon spent time monitoring procedures in the operating room. The visiting radiology technologist viewed procedures in the diagnostic imaging department.
Paul Bacharach, president and CEO, Thelma Sandy, president of the Uniontown Hospital Foundation, Theresa LaCava, M.D., and Dr. Kraus hosted a special luncheon for the group in the Hospital Board Room.
For more information regarding ACHA, interested parties can contact the main office at 480 Racetrack Road, Washington, by calling 724-225-5750 or visit the association’s Web site at www.audiacaring.com.