The Pesenti Foundation for the Covid19 Emergency

 

We wish to thank all the individuals, companies and associations who joined us or will join us in supporting the efforts of thousands of people to help the sick and fight against the pandemic.

Since almost one year (from the end of February 2020 and in the following months till today), the activity of the Pesenti Foundation has been completely “reshaped” to take action to fight the dreadful and unpredictable Covid-19 pandemic. With its President and the Charity Committee, the Foundation promptly assumed a pivotal role to provide concrete help to local communities affected by the pandemic, involving and supporting, also, the interventions of Italmobiliare and the group’s portfolio companies.

At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak the Foundation’s Charity Committee immediately authorized several donations in favor of some hospitals to protect those who are working on the front lines in Bergamo, Brescia, Milan, Cremona, Genoa, Naples and Treviso. Its actions were carried out through economic aid and with the procurement and importation of respirators, serologic tests and personal protective equipment for health professionals. Within this framework, international contacts have also been activated to encourage the import of material (from China, Thailand and Switzerland) in the case of unavailability on the national territory.

Furthermore, in order to implement the best synergies and to help the “Made in Italy” companies, the Foundation finalized a project aimed at purchasing protective devices made by Italian companies operating in the textile ad fashion sectors that have reconverted their activities to produce personal protective equipment for health professionals. The protective devices (Covid protective gowns, protective suits and face masks) were delivered (in many cases directly by the Foundation, in order to ensure the best promptness and effectiveness) to the main operational organizations in the Bergamo area (Papa Giovanni Hospital and Hospital of the Italian Alpine Troops at the Bergamo Fair) as well as to the Niguarda hospital in Milan and some local institutions.

Ospedale Papa Giovanni XXII di bergamo Courtesy L’Eco di Bergamo.

Ospedale Niguarda, Yorick39, CC BY-SA (https.creativecommons.orglicensesby-sa3.0)

Overall, the “Covid-19 emergency” interventions implemented in 2020 by the Foundation sees a commitment of approximately 1.4 million euros, splitted in:

  • approximately 900,000 euros raised through the Covid fund (which includes an extraordinary contribution from Italmobiliare, very significant personal donations, relevant contributions from leading entrepreneurial realities such as Fendi, small but nonetheless important payments from those who have expressed their trust in our Foundation);
  • approximately 500,000 euros of interventions implemented with ordinary funds.

To be added to this commitment are the interventions economically supported by Italmobiliare and the portfolio companies, which have often seen a coordinating role by our Foundation.

The Foundation finalized targeted interventions in favor of communities strongly affected by the health emergency, mainly through the supply of protective materials and sterilization interventions.

Within the initiatives with a direct commitment by the Foundation, we highlight the effort aimed at supporting research programs and supplying “rapid COVID-19 tests”, which proved to be of primary importance.

The support to the Policlinico Hospital of Milan sees the Foundation committed to supply 10,000rapid Covid-19 tests” (in the 1st phase of the research, while recently further 10.000 tests have been supplied thanks to a new donation from the Foundation) which are used for a scientific study involving blood donors. The aim is to obtain a significant “mapping” of the infection’s evolution, offering as well the possibility of swabs for those who have been tested positive (to highlight any persistent ability to infect with a real impact on the whole community).

The Foundation has also intervened in favor of one of the main research institutes, sponsoring the study project of the “Mario Negri” Pharmacological Research Institute focused on the genetic factors influencing the course and severity of Covid-19 disease, in a framework where the pathogenesis and the factors that determine the severity of the disease are mostly unknown.

In the past months, the effort to protect those who are working on the front lines has led to the procurement and importation from Switzerland of 20,000 “rapid Covid-19 tests” (thanks also to the support of Intesa Sanpaolo Bank) to cover the need of “Pastrengo” Interregional Comand of Carabinieri (Italian Police and Armed Force). The serologic tests are designed to detect antibodies produced in response to coronavirus disease in order to perform a diagnostic screening  within the armed forces.

The initiative allows the identification of the police officers who contracted the Covid-19 infection, including those who, being asymptomatic, could unknowingly spread the virus.

Another important supply (2,000 COVID-19 IgG/IgM Rapid tests) was also delivered to the Provincial Command of Milan of the Fire Fighters. A further supply of 800 serological tests were donated to the Honegger RSA Foundation (Albino – Bergamo) while 500 serological tests and 500 antigen rapid tests were sent to the Municipality of Accettura.

An additional substantial supply of 100,000 “rapid COVID-19 tests” were also provided – with the backing of Italmobiliare – to the Microbiology Operating Unit of Treviso, one of frontline and key hospital in Veneto Region.

The import and donation of serological and antigen rapid tests has also been activated in aid of realities (from Albino to Accettura) where the outbreak of the emergency has underlined the cruciality of a widespread “mapping”.

4,300 protective suits were donated to the Papa Giovanni Hospital in Bergamo; the Hospital of the Italian Alpine Troops at the Bergamo Fair; the Niguarda Hospital in Milan; the Hospital of San Giacomo in Novi Ligure and to Carisma Foundation in Bergamo while 1,991 protective gowns were delivered to Soncino Foundation – Nursing Home.

Courtesy facebook page of ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII
The hospital of the Alpine Troops at the Bergamo Fair, Courtesy of L’Eco di Bergamo Courtesy of L’Eco di Bergamo

At the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak the Foundation’s Charity Committee promptly authorized a donation to the Papa Giovanni Hospital in Bergamo to support its activity in a serious emergency situation.

An economic aid was given also to the initiative “Abitare la cura”, aimed at freeing up beds in hospitals that are experiencing serious difficulties and helping families unable to manage the quarantine period in their home. This project, promoted by Caritas, Confederation of Italian Industries of Bergamo and Eco di Bergamo newspaper, has completed two nursing residences featuring rooms with all technical tools required to assist patients during the recovery period – but still in quarantine – and those who contracted the Covid-19 in a less serious way.

Keeping in mind the emergency evolution, the Charity Committee also deliberated a substantial support for the initiative “Let’s start again together”. The purpose of this project – promoted by the Caritas Diocesana Bergamasca – is to create a “Family Fund in Covid-19 emergency” that could cover the main costs in families’ budget, to side those who live or will live, during the reopening phase, in severe precarity and poverty.

Equally important is the support – with the backing of Italmobiliare Group – in favour of the Hospital of the Italian Alpine Troops at the Bergamo Fair for an intervention aimed to cover the expenses for the construction of the hospital’s electrical systems. “The flexibility of the Alpine Troops’ organization – declared the national chairman Sebastiano Favero – and the habit of acting in emergency situations have brought about a small miracle, as the work started on March 24th 2020 and ended on April 1st 2020. A success that was made possible thanks to the close and fruitful cooperation of Protezione Civile (the Italian Emergency Management Agency), ANA (the National Alpine Regiment) and Sanità Alpina (Alpine Health Service), as well as by the commitment of Bergamo volunteer craftsmen who joined alongside the Alpine Troops, working with competence, passion and dedication, 24 hours a day, to achieve the goal in just seven days. An effort that could also count on the fundamental, generous and tangible support of numerous local and national donations”.

The hospital of the Alpine Troops at the Bergamo Fair, Courtesy of L’Eco di Bergamo Courtesy of L’Eco di Bergamo

In addition, the Foundation supported a plan, in collaboration with other Italian companies,  for the procurement and importation into Italy of 210 respirators to be used on ambulances and for the first aid. Fifty of these care systems were provided to the Italian Alpine Troops (who followed the construction of the dedicated Covid hospital at Bergamo Fair), which also managed their distribution to other frontline operators.

photo: IPP/picture ALLIANCE bergamo 01-04-2020 coronavirus emergency – the field hospital built by the national alpine association – in the photo the radiology room – was completed in record time. www.askanews.it

The Foundation – through the valuable activities of the non-profit organization Wamba and Athena – intervened to support the Intensive Care Unit of the Niguarda Hospital in Milan in fostering a project carried out by the department’s psychologists to side healthcare personnel, heavily under stress during the emergency phase and the family members of Covid-19 patients who must not be left alone in these moments of fear.

The Foundation’s aid embraced also the Milan Committee of the Italian Red Cross, in support of the operators in the front line with the rescue and medical transport activities of people affected by the virus and the ones involved in the population assistance programs.

Several thousand of facemasks were delivered to the employees of Italgen and Italmobiliare S.p.A., in order to safeguard staff’s health and to the Parish of Santa Maria Assunta di Bobbio.

It has been very important as well the support given to the municipalities of Travo, Piozzano, Valbondione, Corteno Golgi for sanitizing interventions and for the purchase and management of personal protective equipment.

From an economic, operational and emotional point of view it was an unusual effort – for our Foundation -, made possible thanks to the authority and the skills of the Board of Directors and the Staff.

Crucial – to finalize the numerous interventions – was certainly also the support of the many donors who side us and add their own contribution to the funds allocated directly by the Foundation. The Foundation’s dedicated “Covid emergency” account has received dozens of important donations from companies and individuals in the last months, with amounts ranging from 50 to 268,400 euros. The total amount raised for the “Covid emergency” is almost 900 thousand euros.

An effort that continues even in these days and that will see us committed also in the near future, with the ambition to further improve the effectiveness of the interventions and the synergy that has been defined with numerous institutions.

All this obviously without taking our eyes off – even in a situation of absolute emergency – from the statutory mission of our Foundation, and from the primary attention to innovation, positive social impact and enhancement of the new generations.


 

REPORTING OF THE FUNDS ALLOCATED FOR THE COVID-19 EMERGENCY (click on the tables to download the PDF)

 

 

 

 


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