Father Michael Bassano comes to the African Region of Maryknoll after serving with Maryknoll in Chile and Thailand. Born in Binghamton, New York, he was ordained for the Diocese of Syracuse in 1975. He became a Maryknoll associate in 1987 and was assigned to the Society's Chile region for 10 years, where he ministered to the families of detained and disappeared peoples in the southern district of Santiago. Father Mike took his final oath to Maryknoll in 1998 and was assigned to Bangkok, Thailand, working with HIV/AIDS patients, as well as abused and orphaned children in the slums of Khlong Toey. Currently, he ministers to people in a U.N. camp in Malakal, South Sudan, who have been displaced by civil war.