Assistance to Needy Families in the Laurentino Neighborhood of Rome

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Project location: ITALY, Rome
Project start date: June 2003 - Project end date: This project covers various years
Project number: 2003-34
Beneficiary: SMOM

 [2011-49]

Laurentino Fonte Ostiense (former Laurentino 38) is a neighborhood in Rome with about 30,000 inhabitants, many of them with low income.

The project of assistance to needy families of Laurentino 38 starts in 1998 under the patronage of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and thanks to the late Grand Prior of Rome Fra 'Franz von Lobstein, as a small food assistance project aimed at a few families, coordinated by Letizia Giovanelli and many distinguished volunteers.

In 2003 the collaboration between the Association of Italian Knights of the Order of Malta and the Nando Peretti Foundation started and in a few years the number of people assisted grows from 15 to 200 families, reaching approximately 800 people in total.

The main activity financed by the Foundation is distributing food to needy families. Beneficiary households receive twice a month food packages containing basic necessities. Furthermore, in the case of severe debt with the utilities, the Foundation also contributes to the payment of bills such as heating, electricity and gas. Support is provided to people with health problems in financial difficulties, including the payment of medicines and specialist visits. On the occasion of Christmas and Easter, the Foundation funds the distribution of packages containing Christmas cakes and gifts.

During the summer, the Foundation maintains a center for children from 3 to 12 years of age. In July and August the center organizes sporting and recreational activities, educational trips around the capital and travel-study for 13 to 23 years old kids.
The aim is to occupy young people in summer, thus taking them away from street life and drugs.
The activities of the Summer Center take place at the premises of the Parish of Laurentino, San Mauro Abate, located in Via Francesco Sapori. The priests who look after young people are currently two, Don Ruben and Don Marco. Since 2005, an after-school for the winter was also created, which organizes recreational activities and a drama workshop. The after-school is run by older children, who receive a small weekly wage from the Foundation.

The Peretti Foundation finally assumed the role of intermediary in donations from benefactors outside the families of Laurentino like the Bettoja hotel chain, which previously donated furniture, mattresses and blankets, or Pharmacy Salaria in Rome that donated an entire baby room.

Since 2009, a branch of the Nando Peretti Center was opened at Santa Giovanna Antida Thouret Parish in the Fonte Meravigliosa neighborhood in Rome. The Centre, whose principal activity is support for single mothers in difficulty, took the name of " The Nando Peretti Center in Fonte Meravigliosa ".

Volunteers of the Association of Italian Knights of the Order of Malta who now follow the Laurentino and Fonte Meravigliosa projects are: Letizia Giovanelli (director) Massimo Giuliani (treasurer), Adriana Savignoni, Altea di Gallese, Antonella di Noja, Antonella Susanna, Silvana Abati Bussetti, Laura Leoncini Bartoli, Manuela Solaro del Borgo, Maria Luisa Orsolini Cencelli, Pucci Ferrari, Ines Montini, Alessandro di Paola, Alessandro Casini, Mario Nannarini, Massimo Persechino, Renzo Casini, Fabio Cassani Pironti, Girolamo Scalia, Pasquale Landolfi, Edoardo Bernardeschi, Carlo Cudemo, Laura Manazzetti, Alasia Romanazzi Carducci, Tara Borghese, Eduardo Cerulli.

 
(above) clothes for the needy

From the year 2006, the beneficiary of this project is AVCISMOM (Associazione di Volontariato dei Cavalieri Italiani del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta)

In 2010 the Nando Peretti Foundation has awarded a grant to purchase a van for the transportation of food packages and other humanitarian items.