To the outsider, just keeping track of the many threads in the hive of activity that the Francesca Rava Foundation has become over the past twenty-five years, has become a real challenge.

But the real point of this story is different. It is truly incredible. Wherever you see poverty and suffering, whether in Italy or abroad, you are more likely than not to find the Rava Foundation. It is not there only for emergencies, but most importantly during the long, arduous process of rebuilding lives with dignity. This is what makes the difference.

So much so that Mariavittoria Rava, Francesca's sister, who died at the age of 26 and to whose memory and name the foundation is dedicated, has recognised that "When we took our first steps in 2000, we couldn't have imagined how far our heart would take us". This is precisely the power of the "miracle" that means we are here not to do the possible, but to achieve the impossible. As Mariavittoria loved to say: "Father Rick is the guide and soul of our projects in Haiti, and repeated those words often. Every time, I feel a thrill. Because it's true: what we've achieved together in these 25 years seemed impossible".

When do you realise it?
When you know you're doing the right thing.

And yet?
Yet, here we are, ready to keep making a difference. With a pleasant discovery.

Which is?
These twenty-five years have flown by. That's what happens when you face each new day, close your eyes and know you are doing the right thing for those in need, while humbly remembering that you are just an instrument.

So what does the beginning of a new day look like?
You look at the world and ask yourself just one question: what needs to be done next? Then you go ahead and make it happen.

It's easily said.
When you have love, determination, tenacity and complete selflessness – all these things together – then you do it, and you do it well. It's like joining a family a bit bigger than your own, as my children discovered when they joined the team. They were amazed at the smiles, hugs, gratitude and friendship they received along with the other young volunteers.

So is love the magic word?
Yes. But love is also about action and responsibility. It makes you realise that you can't do everything by yourself. You have to share the pain, the anguish and the fatigue – but what you get in return is priceless.

CONTINUITY TO GO BEYOND THE EMERGENCY
The Rava method transforms emergency situations into permanent centres for healthcare, education and empowerment over the medium and long term. Our journey takes us back to 2006 and the opening of St. Damien's Hospital – the only free paediatric facility in the whole of Haiti – just a few years prior to the devastating earthquake of 2010. This marked the beginning of an extraordinary turning point.  It was here, on the front line, that the first real test was overcome. We then began to forge vital relationships, such as the partnership with the Italian Navy to become a humanitarian partner of the Amerigo Vespucci ship's round-the-world tour. Meanwhile NPH St. Damien, the only free hospital for children on the island, set up and supported by the Foundation, continues to care for 80,000 children a year with staff trained through twinning programmes with leading Italian hospitals. To give you an idea of this huge task, just think that in the extremely poor country of Haiti, two children die every hour from malnutrition and treatable diseases. One child out of every four does not go to school.

"ONE CHILD AT A TIME, FROM THE STREET TO GRADUATION"
The Francesca Rava-NPH Italia ETS Foundation was set up to help children and adolescents living in difficult circumstances, as well as vulnerable mothers and women. It provides immediate, concrete assistance during the ongoing emergency as well as support for children thanks to international adoptions, projects and campaigns to raise awareness of children's rights and to spread the culture of volunteering. The numbers alone are incredible. In Italy, with the project In Farmacia per i bambini in 2024, the Foundation helped 53,100 children living in health poverty; it fights neonatal abandonment and infanticide with Ninna ho alongside the KPMG Network; it runs medical and educational projects to support children living in 986 children's homes, children's communities and associations helping families in difficulty; the project Palla al Centro runs rehabilitation programmes for inmates at the Cesare Beccaria young offenders' institution in Milan. Since October 2024, Palla al Centro has also been implemented in five other IPMS (juvenile prisons of Rome, Pontremoli, Naples, Bari, Catanzaro), thanks to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Foundation with the Ministry of Juvenile and Community Justice. It also built eight schools in central Italy, affected by the 2016 earthquake. Another project, SOS Spesa-La Spesa per chi ha bisogno has helped 55,000 people living in children's homes and centres, families and elderly people living in poverty. During the Covid-19 emergency, the Foundation supported 30 hospitals in 11 regions by sending specialised healthcare volunteers and advanced equipment. During the Ukraine emergency, the Foundation immediately started working in two areas: sending medical aid to hospitals working on the front line and providing social support and employment assistance to refugee families. After the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, the Foundation sent humanitarian and medical aid; after the severe flood in Emilia-Romagna, the Foundation supplied the necessities and also set up a mobile bakery. The Rava Foundation is also on the front line in Gaza, working in synergy with the Ministry of Defence and the Italian Navy. The Rava Foundation is true to its motto "one child at a time, from the street to graduation". In Italy, it represents Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos (Our little brothers and sisters), an international humanitarian organisation that has been welcoming children who are alone and in vulnerable conditions in homes, schools and hospitals in nine countries of Latin America since 1954.

A REMARKABLY GENEROUS BIRTHDAY
Perhaps it is the long life of the Rava Foundation that begs the question – how to celebrate a special anniversary of this extraordinary life, if not by honouring the most profound sense of its mission? The result is two unmissable events: "Women For Haiti, a charity dinner and dancing party" to be held on 17 March at Armani Prive, to support projects for women in Italy and around the world; the second will be the "Serata Straordinaria" at La Scala on 4 June, when the performance will be "Tucidide. Atene contro Melo", written by Alessandro Baricco and Giovanni Sollima and produced by Holden Studios. The narrator will be Alessandro Baricco, with supporting actresses Stefania Rocca and Valeria Solarino. The story will be accompanied by the 100 Cellos orchestra, conducted by Enrico Melozzi with cello soloist Giovanni Sollima. The proceeds of the evening will be donated to NPH St. Damien's Paediatric Hospital in Haiti. On 1 October, the Francesca Rava Foundation will mark 25 years of real help by holding a benefit concert in the magnificent setting of Milan Cathedral. Three extraordinary artists will perform on the occasion: Paola Turci, Arisa and Amii Stewart with the Chamber Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala.

The Foundation's projects to help those most in need include Women for Haiti, aimed at the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer, the second leading cause of death for Haitian women. Before the Francesca Rava Foundation opened the breast cancer centre at St. Luke Hospital in 2017, there was no possibility of treatment for this disease in Haiti. The project has been developed thanks to the indispensable support and valuable scientific leadership of Dr Enrico Cassano, Director of the Division of Breast Radiology of the European Institute of Oncology and a long-standing volunteer of the Foundation. Dr Cassano has completed six missions to Haiti, training local staff and setting up a screening programme which has benefitted more than 3,650 women. Ninna ho, the first national project against neonatal abandonment and infanticide, was launched in 2008 from an idea by the Francesca Rava Foundation and the KPMG Network. Chicas Poderosas, a project run in NPH Homes in Latin America, offers mental health support and professional training to young women experiencing severe hardship, abuse or abandonment, to help them regain their self-confidence and become strong and independent. Borse del cuore, is a project that supports girls in the final years of their secondary education, living in the community, in foster homes, giving them the chance to take up further training or employment.