Italy

‘The people in our offices in Milan and Rome have participated in several community and pro bono initiatives over the years. We look forward to building on this commitment to create a more focused social and environmental programme in the coming months. As part of this, one of our first initiatives in 2008 is to change our electricity supplies to ‘greener’ sources as part of our efforts to reduce our contribution to climate change.’
Vittorio Salvadori di Wiesenhoff, partner responsible for CSR in Milan, and Gian Luca Zampa, partner responsible for CSR in Rome

Milan

In Milan, we have been involved in a weekly volunteering programme at the Pernigotti Association, providing help with homework to children who are immigrants to Italy with little or no Italian and come from as far away as China, Peru and the Philippines.

The Milan office has also made a donation to the construction of Comitato Maria Letizia Verga, a hospital that will help young children with leukaemia.

Rome

A member of staff in our Rome office works with the Peter Pan Association, an organisation founded in 1994 that provides accommodation and other support to children with cancer and their families. The Rome office also works with AISCUP, an association that supports cancer patients while they are undergoing treatment. Volunteers give patients lifts to and from hospital and participate in fundraising activities that help provide counselling and physiotherapy.

A member of staff in the Rome office has given 90 hours of support to homelessness organisation Caritas.

The Rome office has donated computers to Consorzio Gioventù Digitale to enable older people to benefit from free IT courses.

We also provide legal assistance to the families of children affected by Down’s syndrome in association with Casa Arcobaleno Association (AIPD).

Community Challenge

As part of our first firm-wide community and pro bono initiative, Community Challenge 2007, volunteers from our offices in Milan and Rome took part in the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Onlus’s food collection day. The charity collects excess food and distributes it to organisations helping poor and marginalised people in Italy. As part of the day, the offices allowed the charity to come and collect food; some of our staff volunteers worked at supermarkets, convincing people to donate food; and others worked at the tills collecting food and packing it. The team in Rome sent nearly 100 boxes of food to the charity to be donated to people in need.