Gino Strada died last August, it was a surprise for everybody. He was a man to be proud of.

He was a heart-and-lung surgeon, trained not only in Milan but also in Stanford and in South Africa. Gino could have spent a rich life in Milan, instead he cose a much different life, caring for the most desperate people in war thorn countries, in desperate places, draining, cleaning, cutting and suturing the worst wounds imaginable.

Gino Strada believed health care was a human right.

“Healing the wounded is neither generous nor merciful, it is simply right. It must be done ».

Gino was shocked by the fact that health care in war-prone places scarcely existed. He believed that the poor, as well as the rich, should get the best medical care the world could provide. And, for the poor, it should be free.

In 1994 he founded Emergency, which had equality of care as its first principle. Gino dreamed big: he thought there would be a time when talking would replace fighting, and when war would seem as unthinkable as slavery.

We are not there yet, but is work is not going to waste.

An Italian to be proud of.

May he Rest In Peace.

Here are his books on Amazon

Green Parrots: A War Surgeon’s Diary

For those who want to donate to his NGO Emergency,