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CHARITY ACROSS BORDERS
CHARITYACROSS BORDERS
By Mr LEONARDO GARILLI, RT 4 Piacenza, Italy
THE BRIDGE BETWEEN Italy and Africa that has allowed the success of this important Service is Dionisio Cumbà, Minister of Health of Guinea-Bissau. Dionisio left his country of origin many years ago to study as a nurse in Verona. Then, he graduated in medicine in Padua. Through a former member of the Round Table Piacenza, lawyer Michele Cattadori, Round Table Piacenza was put in contact with Minister Dionisio for this charity project, which culminated with the gala dinner event on February 18th. The event included the active participation of the Municipality of Piacenza as well as numerous sponsors such as the Round Table Italia Onlus Foundation, BMW, Nordmeccanica and many others.
THIS BEAUTIFUL DINNER EVENT, thanks to the sponsor and participants’ generosity, raised over €20,000 which is beyond what was initially budgeted. With this budget raised, it was then possible to purchase 10 medical multiparameter monitors equipped with 10 batteries for the intensive care units of Guinea Bissau through the company SolMed.
The President of Piacenza’s table Leonardo Garilli and the lawyer Cattadori, following the success of the project, received a presidential invitation to go to Guinea Bissau to deliver the monitors in person and meet the President. Leonardo enthusiastically accepted the invitation and organized his trip between April 30 and May 6, 2022.
THE DAY BEFORE the offi cial delivery of the monitors, scheduled for May 4th, Leonardo was received by His Excellency the President Umaro El Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló. During this meeting, the President of Guinea Bissau offi cially thanked Round Table for the monitors and efforts made. The meeting was also useful to discuss the development of some future projects and investments. A press conference was held soon after to inform the public of the important initiative.
THE OFFICIAL DELIVERY of the monitors to the hospital, which took place the next day, was a success. The Minister of Health and the President of the hospital participated in the event. Garilli had the pleasure of sharing the support that Round Table wants to give to Guinea Bissau to local microphones. Not only that, since on the same day he held several meetings with the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior, later he was also received by the Foreign Minister.
LEONARDO WAS VERY happy with the trip in which he had the opportunity to visit a part of the local islands, as well as the capital Bissau. He discovered great poverty in the country which pushes us to help the local population even more as well as making us realize how much a project like this one can really make a difference.
THE EVENT THAT the Round Table Piacenza organized kicked off an awareness campaign towards the health needs of Guinea Bissau. It spread like wildfi re to other non-profi t but also government bodies for the purchase of machinery hospitals and the search for resources for the construction of a new hospital. The project was presented by the Engineer and Professor Nicoletti Mauro who had the approval of the local government to gather a budget in order to build the new structure.
THE PRESIDENT of Piacenza’s Table, Leonardo Garilli, is still working with government and non-profi t organizations for a fi nal donation to be made to Guinea Bissau before the end of his term. If this initiative is also successful, it will later be publicized through the Round Table press organs together with the main Italian newspapers.
