Support to 250 Families of the Centre Nando Peretti Roma Sud (formerly Laurentino 38) Housing Estate of Rome

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

 [2004-5 | 2005-8 | 2006-16 | 2007-21 | 2008-42 | 2010-3 | 2010-76 | 2011-49 | 2012-118 | 2013-056 | 2015-005 | 2015-044 | 2017-036 | 2018-027]

Laurentino Fonte Ostiense (formerrly knows as 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 grew from 15 to 200 families, reaching approximately 800 people in total.

The main activity financed by the Nando Peretti 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 Nando Peretti Foundation eventually 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 ".

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.

In 2015, the Nando Peretti Foundation awarded a grant to ACISMOM - Associazione dei Cavalieri Italiani del Sovrano Militare Ordine di Malta, to achieve the following goals:

-    20 distributions of more than 250/300 food parcels, each consisting of 20 different kinds of foods;
-    5,000 total parcels for a total of 60 tons of food;
-    20 distributions of clothing, sheets, towels, pillows, blankets and shopping carts provided, as well as to those who usually retire food packs (250 families), to about other 80-90 families;
-    400-500 distributions of gift packs at Easter and Christmas;
-    50 layette supplies and prams for newborns
-    500 distributions of food and hygiene products for children
-    payment of bills, medicine, doctor visits which are not loanable in some exceptional cases, glasses, school meals and utilities for the most desperate cases;
-    educational support through scholarships, provision of textbooks, computers, and teaching materials;
-    renovations in homes of people in a serious state of distress (boilers, electrical and plumbing);
-    Summer Centre with the supply of clothing-shirts and backpacks with the logo of the Foundation, Summer Camp and trips during the winter;
-    the organization of a new computer centre and a new sewing center, a theater workshop and a CAV at the Parish of S. Giovanni Battista de La Salle;
-    Administrative-Legal assistance;
-    distribution of children's toys;
-    creation of a library to increase even in adults the spread of reading;
-    support of the theater workshop.

Year 2018 marks the 16th year of support from the Nando and Elsa Peretti Foundation to this project, with  grant for the period 2019-2021.