By Lucia Caretti & Francesca Giannotti
It has happened many times in the last months, and it keeps on happening. 50 dollars from the United States, 1696 euros from Denmark, 20 dollars from New York in memory of “Leonardo, Florence and Peter emigrates from Castelfranco to the Bronx back in 1882”. Alexander, from Moscow, donated 1500 Russian rubles : “It’s not much, but I want to help. Go Italy, don’t give up now!”. This has been going on for the last 3 months, and it keeps on happening. The solidarity that we have received has gone beyond all boundaries. We have received almost 1500 donations from 67 different countries. This is 10% of the total donations (over 15 thousands) that the Foundation has received. All for a total of 9.9 million of euros.
From Guatemala to Bahrein, passing through Argentina, Finland, the Emirate states, Spain, Pakistan, Marocco, Bulgaria, Brazil, Slovakia, France: over 185 thousand euros, together with a warm hug to all of the Italians that are suffering during this tough time, have arrived from abroad. Together with this overwhelming solidarity we, as the Foundation La Stampa Specchio dei tempi, who for 65 years has worked to help different countries, in five continents, after natural disasters, have received further international recognition. When dealing with the pandemic, the entire world has supported our initiatives with small and bigger donation, accompanied by messages of support. You can find these here: specchiodeitempi.org/dediche. “Italy, with her music and movies, has changed my life. It has a special place in my heart therefore I wish to contribute” says Liew from Malaysia. An Eritrean man who lives in Norway has donated 200 euros and stated “I arrived back in 2006 by boat. Thank you for helping me during the toughest time of my life. You are a generous population. I am heartbroken to learn what your country is going through.” 100 euros have arrived from Iraq from Ammar, a doctor. Ali Said has done what he could by donating 2 euros accompanied by a heartwarming message: “I wish I could do more but I am a poor man from Turkey with a minimum salary”.
The home-made marathon
Everyone helps as they can. Some people also came up with unique initiatives to raise money in favor of Specchio dei tempi. Andrew Bannon is an example. The Irish speaker who lives in Bavaria, and has organized a marathon in his backyard to raise money in favor of Specchio dei tempi. The result was astonishing: 1000 laps and 2070 euros raised to demonstrate that “Europe is alive”.
Germany and the UK have been, up to now, the most generous countries after the United States. From our statistics we have received 75 donations for both European countries and 161 from the US. On top of that we have received over 400 donations from Global Giving, an institution for the americans.
The website translated in Chinese
Specchio has not only translated its website in English in order to keep all readers up to date, but also in Chinese in order for the Foundation to be know in the far East. This is how we have managed to reach 20 donors in Hong Kong and raised 6445 euros. Beijing has also been very generous as it has donated 60 thousand mask. These have been donated by a number of entrepreneurs that fell in love with the mountains of the Piedmont region.
This flow of donations hasn’t stopped yet. Forbes has listed Specchio as number one Onlus Foundation for donations in Italy. This was mainly due to the great work done on our social media pages but mostly due to the generous hearts of many special souls. The Buddhist monks have donated 10 thousand dollars. Nic Paton, the South African composer, has created a track to support Specchio dei tempi. It starts like this: “ Dedicated to our dear Italians. We are standing by your side”.
