When and how was the idea of the Foundation born and what are the reasons that made us create it?
The question concerns “the roots” of the Foundation, the reasons of its creation, the fundamental choices, the way it is administrated, the “whys” of its existence.
The Foundation was born after all the members of the family had had short personal experiences in Ethiopia, in particular in the Tigray region where the town of Adwa Is situated, near the border with Eritrea. These experiences “on the field” and the direct contact with that reality, gave us a real feeling of the great poverty and of the enormous problems of that area of Ethiopia.
Francesco more than the others was impressed by some particular and dramatic experiences he lived and that where always involving children.
So after repeating the experience several times, he felt he was personally called to do something.
He therefore decided to move to Ethiopia in October 2002.
After a short time he realized that the ones who were the first victims of poverty and abandonment were the children and that it was then necessary to dedicate to them, doing something real and concrete for their present and for their future.
This is the way the idea of building the Children’s Village was born.
But to do this, a lot of money was necessary, and we couldn’t make it alone.
So we decided to create the Foundation. So that others could reach us in an effort that otherwise would have been impossible.
Many times, with Francesco we remember about one evening, we were sitting on a stone, after sunset, the scraper had just finished digging the ground where the Village was supposed to be built. We were considering how much it was going to cost. It was nearly one million euros…we looked at each other speechless…had we been too unwise?
We were not afraid though, somehow we knew we would have made it.
And this is how it was.
That Christmas we had asked Francesco to give us a special gift: writing to us the deep motivations that had pushed him towards that choice of life.
We think it is nice to share some of them, so to better understand “the roots” of the Foundation.
- …I’m convinced life’s a too precious gift to let it just go away “like sand through your fingers”
- …I did not miss anything, and in the moment you realize this, you have the duty to turn to those who own just their nothing.
- …there are abandoned children, who have even more hunger for love than for bread, who need someone who can laugh with them when they are happy and dry their tears when they are crying.
- …I think each of us, one day, will be asked about “the last ones on the earth” and that day I don’ want to answer “I knew, but couldn’t do anything because I was too busy doing other things”.
- …someone told me that “all that is not give is lost” and here, everything is gift, nothing of what I’m doing is lost…
- …I’m here because I’ve been given the possibility to choose, therefore, I couldn’t be elsewhere.
- …since I’ve been here I’ve had difficulties, misunderstandings, dark moments, but there is something that was never missing, and it was the endless joy of doing something I really love…
When we read these words we really knew it was the choice of his life, that then became, with the work in the Foundation, also the choice of our lives first and of Nevia’s.
And we hope that , through the participation to the Foundation’s activities, it will become the choice of those who read these lines too.