Mother’s Choice is a charity established in Hong Kong in 1987 to support children without families and pregnant adolescents.

Support project for pregnant teenagers in Hong Kong.

In 1986, a series of newspaper articles reported on the alarming number of teenage pregnancies in Hong Kong. This prompted Gary and Helen Stephens and Ranjan and Phyllis Marwah to set up Mother’s Choice. With their dedication to service, love for the city of Hong Kong, and the support of many in the community, they opened the doors to Mother’s Choice in 1987. Their passion for providing loving, non-judgmental support to the many pregnant teenagers who had no one to turn to has grown to encompass the provision of educational care for children without families and serve as a voice of support for them. The vision of Mother’s Choice is bold, but by working together it can be achieved.

Fondazione Italy Maggie Care, a third-sector organisation based in Milan, addresses concrete needs not covered by the public system, selecting qualified partners and funding those programmes with a direct and measurable impact on people’s lives. Founded through the commitment of an Italian-Chinese business community firmly rooted in Milan, it aims to serve as a bridge between the two cultures, including through its work in the field of solidarity.

Sports therapy project: support for the purchase of sports prostheses and assistive devices for children and young people who have undergone limb amputation.

In Italy, prosthetics and sports equipment for children and young people who have undergone limb amputation are not covered by the National Health Service, which only funds prosthetics for everyday use. A running, skiing or fencing prosthesis must be custom-made and, for a growing child, often needs to be modified or replaced: a cost borne entirely by families. For those who wear a prosthesis, sport is not just a leisure activity, but a genuine form of therapy for physical recovery, self-esteem and inclusion. Fondazione Italy Maggie Care addresses this need through art4sport ETS in Mogliano Veneto, founded in 2009 by the family of Paralympic champion Bebe Vio and one of Italy’s leading organisations in youth Paralympic sport: since 2009, it has funded over 210 sport prostheses and assistive devices, supporting around fifty children and young people aged 6 to 32 over the years.

The contribution is an unrestricted donation to support:
– custom-made sport prostheses and assistive devices for children and young people;
– continuity in their sporting and rehabilitation pathways over time;
– financial relief for families already burdened by high healthcare costs.

The foundation intends to sustain this commitment, consolidating its support for sport-therapy programmes for children and young people with physical disabilities and, subject to available resources, extending this support to other initiatives consistent with its statutory purposes in the social, healthcare, and educational fields.

IOM Ascoli Piceno ODV ETS has been operating locally since 1996, providing free domiciliary care to cancer patients and support to their families.

Assistenza specialistica, domiciliare e di prossimità – Continuità e cura (Specialist, Home and Community Assistance – Continuity and Care) is a project established to consolidate an integrated care model for cancer patients, people with Alzheimer’s, dementia or neurodegenerative diseases, frail older people who are not self-sufficient, and their carers.

IOM has built up extensive experience in palliative care, psychological support and assistance for frail people. The project’s activities include domiciliary palliative care, cognitive stimulation, psychological and educational support, guidance and assistance for carers, patient transport, and health prevention and promotion initiatives, with a particular focus on mountainous and outlying areas and small towns, where the distance from services can make access to care pathways more difficult. The aim is to provide continuous, personalised care, while supporting both frail people and those who take care of them on a daily basis. The philosophy underpinning the project is to enable people, whenever possible, to remain in their familiar home environment, thereby improving their quality of life. The project thus combats isolation, the fragmentation of services and unnecessary hospital admissions.

The Education Department of Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo designs and delivers activities for schools, young people, adults, teachers, families and people with disabilities.

Tracce d’arte: an educational project aimed at primary schools in the Guarene area, designed to promote contemporary culture and raise awareness among children and their families around the importance of caring for heritage and protecting the environment.

In 2019, Fondazione Sandretto opened the San Licerio Hill Art Park to the public, a site that is enriched every year with new site-specific sculptures. The project centres on the park’s installations offering ten primary school classes from Guarene and Vaccheria the opportunity to take part in a workshop programme designed to introduce the children to contemporary art and culminating in a final exhibition at Palazzo Re Rebaudengo. The programme is based on three key elements: art, reading and play. The overall aim of the project is to promote the protection and responsible enjoyment of the local area through contemporary art, while respecting the landscape, the environment as a whole, and culture. The active involvement of young visitors and children aims to strengthen ties with the community and encourage civic participation in cultural life. The educational programme will end with an exhibition at Palazzo Re Rebaudengo in Guarene to showcase the work carried out in schools and share it with the local community. The museum fulfils its primary function as a cultural, educational and social presence fostering intergenerational exchange.

Fondazione PIME was established in 2018 to help children, young people and people with disabilities through distance sponsorship, educational programmes, and missionary outreach activities.

Un tetto per continuare a crescere (A Roof Under Which to Grow): a project to renovate a children centre in Cambodia for girls and boys, providing them with a welcoming and safe environment where to stay while their parents are at work.

Fondazione PIME’s mission extends across a wide area of Cambodia, comprising five communities where pastoral and educational activities are carried out, and a further three villages where after-school and literacy programmes are organised, making a total of eight pastoral centres supported on a weekly basis. In response to these specific needs, the missionaries decided to establish a children centre in Kompong Som, 215 kilometres south of Phnom Penh, open to boys and girls from the neighbourhood, providing them with a welcoming and safe environment they can stay in while their parents are at work. The centre is attended by around 300 children and their 200 families, offering them a space designed for play, socialising and taking their first steps towards independence. After years of activity, the premises now require major refurbishment in order to remain a point of reference for so many families in Kompong Som. The classrooms, situated on the first floor of the mission building, show signs of age and of the relentless effects of the climate: six months of constant rain and humidity, year after year, have weakened the roof, walls and building services. The deterioration is gradual, but without prompt action, the premises risk becoming unsafe.

The Archdiocese of Gorizia ETS Carità Diocesana, through the Diocesan Caritas of Gorizia, has for years been implementing concrete measures to support local families experiencing financial hardship, offering free, tangible and dignified assistance in the form of essential food, personal hygiene, and household products.

Empori della Solidarietà are welcoming spaces where families facing financial hardship can do their shopping free of charge, choosing the products they really need.

An Emporio della Solidarietà is a free distribution centre for food, personal and household hygiene products that is run like a supermarket. There are five such centres in the Archdiocese of Gorizia: Gorizia, Monfalcone, Gradisca, Cervignano and Cormons. To access this service, families must first contact the Listening Centres in their parish, which assess the household’s socio-economic situation and forward the necessary documentation to the relevant Emporio, which then issues a renewable card that is valid for one to three months. This initiative we set out to support simultaneously addresses several complementary areas: on the one hand, the shelves are stocked with products donated by the European ESF+ Programme (formerly FEAD) and supplied through collaboration with the FVG Food Bank and the ‘Siticibo’ programme, which collects food products nearing their use-by date from large-scale retail chains; on the other, contributions from local businesses, agricultural producers, private donors and parishes, as well as targeted purchases, ensure the availability of fresh food produce such as fruit, vegetables, bread, yoghurt, dairy products, cured meats, meat and ready meals. The social impact of this project translates into tangible benefits for the community: families in need can access essential goods independently and with dignity, while the partnership with the local Italian Red Cross committees in Gorizia and Monfalcone also enables the periodic distribution of personal and household hygiene products, thereby extending the support provided to the local area.