An organisation born of pain now aims to act as a reference point for distance adoption and internationally recognised projects
“An organisation born of pain which aims to respond with love.” This is how Mariavittoria Rava sums up the birth and objectives of the Francesca Rava Foundation, which she herself founded in the year 2000 after her sister Francesca died at the age of just 26 in an accident. “I wanted to do some good in her memory and heard about NPH (Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos), a humanitarian body which welcomes and supports thousands of orphaned, abandoned and suffering children in Latin America. I wanted to open a fund-raising office in Italy and that was how the idea was born.”
The foundation became NPH’s representative in Italy and has built a great deal since then: a hospital in Haiti which saves 80,000 children every year and a varied programme of projects focusing not just on distance adoption but also on action ranging from combating educational and health poverty to fostering women’s empowerment in Italy and abroad. The organisation is also on the emergency-response front line from the Emilia-Romagna floods to Gaza. And it has partnered with local bodies (including Navigazione Laghi) as well, thanks to the work of its volunteers. “Ours can only be described as a family, with each one of us contributing ideas, hard work and talent and this has made for results which are greater than the sum of its parts”, concludes Mariavittoria. It is hard work which won significant institutional recognition on 22 April, when the Foundation met the Italian Republic’s President Sergio Mattarella, on the occasion of the publication of Claudio Guerrini’s book Ti cercherò per sempre (I’ll never stop looking for you) by Mondadori.
