Invitations for tenders for companies in Turin and its province are back

Angelo Conti & Lucia Caretti

We have to start again. It will not be easy and it will be a battle into which we will also have to put a lot of courage. We will have to do it all together, returning to believe in our projects and our dreams. Specchio dei tempi has always meant hope and has always meant Turin. So we want to help our city and our province again, exactly one year after the launch of the “Coronavirus Emergency” subscription. We want to replicate the call for tenders of last May with an initiative aimed at supporting the small and very small artisan, agricultural, tourist and commercial activities that are trying to restart after the hardest months of the pandemic.

Specchio puts € 200,000 on the plate to offer a cheque of € 2000 to 100 micro-companies, to help their recovery and the morale of those who fight this difficult battle. As always, the possibility of sharing this mission is opened up to all, increasing the resources available and thus allowing a greater amount of aid.

The second edition of the “A breath for Turin” tender will be inaugurated on March 6, with the start of applications. There is time until 21 to participate by filling out the form available on this page and uploading all the required documents. At the end of March, the Specchio commission will meet and starting from 6 April we will begin to provide subsidies. All in a month, without wasting time, just as we like it.

HOW TO SUPPORT THE “A BREATH FOR TORINO 2” TENDER.
From 6 March 2020 to today, Specchio has raised over 10 million euros to support the fight against Coronavirus, through almost 16,000 donations from 70 countries around the world. Resources that every day have been transformed into concrete and immediate help: 1.1 million protective devices for health workers; 146 pieces of medical machinery and equipment (including two CAT scanners) donated to 19 Piedmontese hospitals; a thousand tablets, several hundred sanitizing kits and online teaching platforms for schools. Tens of thousands of shopping packages for the elderly and families in difficulty, distributed first in Turin and then throughout Italy. Anyone wishing to support this project and the tender for small businesses can do so by paying online with a click here, or by using any of the methods indicated here.

 

Floods in Piedmont, subsidies are rising: we will help 65 companies

Seven hundred and fifty donations, large and small, for a total of 337,207 euros. These numbers demonstrate the solidarity of the La Stampa-Specchio dei tempi Foundation, close to the people of Piedmont hit by the flood of a month ago. The vast majority of interventions have been made in the Cuneo area and have increased in the last few hours (also thanks to a new important donation). Specchio dei tempi has in fact decided to extend the 3000 euro contribution to all 65 activities that participated in the tender (launched in recent weeks with Reale Foundation, Confartigianato Cuneo, Banca Alpi Marittime), an important gift that could be used to meet the primary expenses of the most damaged small businesses, artisans, commercial and agricultural. Many bank transfers have already been made, the others will be sent within a few days. The tender was open to small and very small entrepreneurs from the eight areas of Cuneo most affected. The municipality that sent the most requests was Garessio with 25, followed by Limone Piemonte with 16, Ormea with 13, Ceva with 6, Bagnasco and Pamparato with 2, Priola with 1. There was no request from Nucetto.

All those who participated will receive the Specchio contribution as a gift. This was also made possible by a generous donation of the Industrial Union of Turin: “After the contribution that last March – explained the leaders of the Turin association – the Industrial Union of Turin and the Turin trade union secretariats of CGIL CISL UIL donated to the Turin hospitals to support the Covid emergency, the same Associations jointly donated 35,000 euros to the Specchio dei Tempi-La Stampa Foundation in Turin to support the populations who were victims of the floods that hit some territories of the Piedmont Region in October last year. With this donation, the role of the Committee that was established since 1994 on the occasion of previous natural disasters to jointly raise funds for the aid of structures of common interest affected by disasters, supporting them economically, has been fulfilled “.

But the good news doesn’t end here. In the days immediately following the flood, Specchio dei tempi visited the premises of the Ceva Professional Training Centre. An allocation of 10,000 euros was decided, immediately delivered, to which Specchio has now decided to add another 50,000 euros to allow the purchase of a numerically controlled machine, essential for the training of the children. “We are happy with this choice – explained Mario Barello, the general manager of CFP Cebano Monregalese – which will allow us to fully resume all our activities soon. The CFP has three operational offices in the province of Cuneo: Ceva, Mondovì and Fossano. In the last years of training, in the three locations, a total of around 5000 people (young people after middle school and adults for retraining and professional updating) have turned to various training activities. If we consider the Ceva headquarters alone, there have been over 2,000 people. As regards the activities related to the mechanical sector of the Ceva site alone, the students who use our laboratories exceed 200 per year on average, including adults “.

Specchio dei tempi then decided to carry out some minor interventions in favour of two hard hit businesses in the municipality of Lisio, somewhat forgotten in the days following the calamitous event, despite extensive damage. In line with further developments of the subscription, the La Stampa Foundation intends to evaluate the possibility of intervening also in Val Gesso, in the Maritime Alps Park, to support green tourism that could restore economic momentum to this area. At the moment these are only ideas which could however become reality if the solidarity of the subscribers allows it.

This is what we have recently added to the previous interventions: kindergarten and walkway in Ceva, multifunctional area in Nucetto, Pollicino park in Ormea. But what we are proudest of is the aid to 65 small businesses in the Cuneo area to which we have given a little respite, together with our friendship and hope.