Nyumbani Founder & Medical Director Rev. Angelo D'Agostino, S.J., M.D. passed away on Nov. 20, 2006. Click here for his Memorial Pages.

Father Angelo D'Agostino, S.J., M.D.

Joining the Jesuits
Before joining the Jesuits in 1955, I spent two years as a surgeon with the U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C. It was during this time that having made a retreat with the Knights of Columbus under Fr. Dave Madden, S.J., the thought of a vocation arose. After some efforts at convincing the Jesuits at Georgetown that I was serious, I was allowed to take Latin classes in the evenings and finally was accepted. During the novitiate, it soon became obvious that the Society was not particularly interested in a surgeon, but thanks to the creative foresight and sensitivity of Fr. Tom Gavigan, S.J., Novice Master, I learned that psychiatry would be more useful.

Refugee Service
Many years later, after having completed training, I began to practice and teach psychiatry in Washington, D.C. Later, I set up the Center for Religion and Psychiatry and taught at the Washington Theological Union.

I visited mainland China in 1978, with a group of medical men, where there were rumors that the Society might be invited to reopen the Medical School in Shanghai. Thus, I volunteered for such a post. After a year, I received word from the Provincial that Fr. Arrupe, who was Superior General of the Society of Jesus at the time, was calling for volunteers to work in Thailand with Indochinese refugees. The Provincial then asked that I consider this assignment. I suspended the practice and teaching obligations in Washington, DC for one year and I set off for Thailand as a director of a medical facility at a refugee camp there. After one year when I was about to return to the United States, Fr. Arrupe chanced to come through Bangkok and spent a couple of days with us.

I shall never forget his August 6th homily on the anniversary of the Hiroshima atom bomb drop. After Mass, he had dinner with us and revealed that he was considering starting the Jesuit Refugee Service in Africa and asked if I would consider coordinating that effort. I responded by saying that my leave and professional obligations ran for one year and that I was obliged to return. But he suggested that it would be only for a few months.

Well, it was a few years later, when the Refugee Service was well developed and in good hands, that I moved on to other fields. The two years spent as Coordinator of the Jesuit Refugee Service were frantic, challenging and very rewarding. The sum total of it was that programs were established in Sudan, Ethiopia, Zaire and Tanzania. Coordinating the efforts of wonderfully generous Jesuits from Belgium, India and Canada, while using Nairobi as a base, I was able to establish programs in these various countries only because they were manned by Jesuits who volunteered their services living in extremely difficult and trying situations.

The Idea Was Conceived
Returning to the U.S. for some time, I was able to resume practice and teaching. I found the experience sterile compared to the work that I left in Africa. So in 1987, I returned to Eastern African and was given the work as a Superior of a Retreat House, which was in need of expansion and refurbishment. When that was concluded, I resumed the general practice of psychiatry with some teachings of pastoral psychology. It was during this time that I served on the Board of Governors of a large orphanage. The orphanage was receiving abandoned children who were testing HIV+, so I suggested that a special facility be made available because of their needs. Unfortunately, the Board did not agree. When I did some research, I found that there were no such facilities in the country. The Minister of Health who is now the President, was very encouraging and strongly suggested that something be done.

With such a stimulus and encouragement from a variety of well-wishers, we did embark on a program which, ultimately, resulted in the opening of the Nyumbani home for HIV+ abandoned children on September 8, 1992.