Top model and activist Anja Rubik supports our projects in Ukraine

Anja Rubik, the model and advocate of social change, covers the relaunch issue of D, weekly magazine of La Repubblica, edited by Emanuele Farneti. Photographed by Carlijn Jacobs and styled by Jacob K, she gave a long interview to Filip Niedenthal and launched an appeal to help Ukrainian refugees through donations to our foundation, Specchio d’Italia.

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“Fashion has always been informed by what goes on in the world” she said. “What we wear stems from where and how we live, and what we are subjected to. Bill Cunningham said fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life. And let’s be clear: everyone has the right to voice their opinion on politics, whether its designers or models or editors”.

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What Specchio is doing to help Ukraine

Every day we send shuttles loaded with food, medicines and basic necessities to the Polish and Romanian borders, which on their return accompany families fleeing violence to Italy. Once they arrive, we give them economical help. We are also opening a tent city in Ukraine, on the border with Romania, for the first reception of refugees not willing to leave their country.

Our tent city in Cernivci will be ready in ten days

How to donate for the Ukrainian refugees

You can donate by clicking here or you can pay by bank transfer to the current account in the name of Fondazione Specchio d’Italia ONLUS, Iban code IT82 F030 6909 6061 0000 0176 056, Banca Intesasanpaolo. Please indicate “For the people of Ukraine” in the reason for payment.

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Half a million euro donated for Ukraine

Over 505,000 euro raised from 2,215 donors. This is the current picture of the subscription launched by Specchio d’Italia and Specchio dei tempi, the two charitable foundations linked to the Gedi group. Among the first to have opened the collection in favour of the Ukrainian refugees, already on the morning of Sunday 27 February, with a payment of their own funds for 100,000 euro, they then managed a long series of interventions.

The first emergency appeared on the Polish and Hungarian borders. In a few hours, Specchio d’Italia contacted voluntary associations, local authorities and journalists from local newspapers in those countries to get a good understanding. It appeared that while there were no critical situations on the Hungarian border (the Hungarian reception machine is efficient and covers all the needs of those arriving), the situation on the routes to Poland, Romania and Moldova was quite different. The first shuttles financed and supported by our foundations went to these areas.

 After a few days, the first refugees arrived in Italy, reaching first Brescia, then Modena, Milan, Rome and Turin. Since then, the shuttle service has become daily: 9-seater buses and a 54-seater coach, which left on Saturday and returned to Piedmont last night.

Obviously, these vehicles also started to transport basic necessities: mainly foodstuffs with a long shelf life, personal hygiene products, mattresses, cots, pillows, medicines and various medical supplies (with particular demand for syringes, bandages, plasters and disinfectants).

Gradually, the sphere of intervention was extended to Ukraine: the two foundations’ minibuses reached Lviv on several occasions, bringing supplies and returning loaded with hope in the form of the refugees.

In the meantime, Specchio d’Italia has also started to offer assistance to refugees who have arrived in other Italian cities. In Palermo, an important economic contribution was given to the family of a severely disabled 8-year-old girl who had just arrived from Kiev (photo below). It was precisely this intervention that triggered another initiative to enable the supply of rare and expensive medicines (e.g. anti-epileptic drugs) for disabled children still in Ukraine.

Specchio d’Italia is also opening a tent city on the border with Romania for the first reception of those arriving and from tomorrow will also support the costs of a chain of departures with 60-seater coaches to Milan, Rome and Turin.

How to donate for the Ukrainian refugees

You can donate by clicking here or you can pay by bank transfer to the current account in the name of Fondazione Specchio d’Italia ONLUS, Iban code IT82 F030 6909 6061 0000 0176 056, Banca Intesasanpaolo. Please indicate “For the people of Ukraine” in the reason for payment.

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#ForzaNonni, our project conceived for the elderly

Angelo Conti

“Forza nonni!” (Come on you elderly!”) is a Specchio d’Italia Foundation project born after the outbreak of the pandemic. When it was suddenly realized that older people had become much more fragile, and not only – unfortunately – because they were dying. Their life had suddenly become complicated and everything had become more difficult: from shopping to picking up a drug, up to maintaining a minimum of human relationships with their children and grandchildren. Deep loneliness, crossed by fear but also by despair. The Bersezio Foundation was immediately close to us, with an important contribution, sharing the project with enthusiasm.

So Specchio d’Italia set off by identifying the weakest and loneliest “over 80s”, launching an assistance programme in Milan, Rome, Genoa, Bari and Turin which resulted in the delivery of the Thirteenth Salary of Friendship in December (a cheque for 300 euros to make Christmas less sad), the donation of two shopping packages a month left on the doormat, the assistance for 4 hours a month of a domestic worker, a constant telephone presence guaranteed by the volunteer group of Specchio d’Italia and, if necessary, psychological support. In addition, as part of the School-Work Alternation programme, the students of the communication courses of some classical high schools will collect the “memories” of the elderly assisted in a volume, so as not to waste this precious heritage of knowledge and experience. All ways to keep saying “Come on you elderly! You are not alone!”

The President of Specchio d’Italia, Lodovico Passerin d’Entreves, underlined the validity of the initiative: “The goal is not so much to offer economic support, which is also provided and is important, but above all to share the difficulties of people who, too often, find themselves alone after a busy life and work. The delivery of a shopping package every two weeks, the availability of a domestic assistant, the phone calls from volunteers and the availability of a psychologist are all elements capable of changing the life of people who must not feel marginalized”.

What we are doing in Rome

Angelo Conti

2000 people live in the former Bastogi residence, which officially isn’t even certified for residential use: mainly Italian families in conditions of fragility and economic difficulty. It is estimated that at least 300 children and adolescents are growing up in these buildings on the outskirts of Rome, many of whom have never gone to lessons. In these houses, we are facing Specchio d’Italia’s most complicated challenge: the fight against early school abandonment, micro and baby crime. Poverty, social hardship, abuse, violation of school obligations must be defeated in order to give dozens of children a more peaceful future, within the law.

To be close to these young people we distributed 60 backpacks with stationery products and books to read. Then we obtained, created and furnished a classroom to host four afternoons of homework assistance per week. The project started in the spring of 2020, with the precious logistics of the Rome association Amici dei Bimbi Onlus of Stefano Santini. It is beginning to give important results.

Also in the Bastogi area we supported the elderly in difficulty with the Thirteenth Salary of Friendship, a historic initiative with which we offer financial aid to the loneliest and poorest elderly people. A commitment that will now continue with the “Support the Elderly” programme.

At the same time as the intervention in Bastogi, two other projects were financed in the capital: a pet therapy activity for disabled children in primary schools (with Antas Onlus) and a programme for donating hairpieces to women undergoing chemotherapy in the Tor Vergata hospital (with the Arcobaleno della Speranza Onlus).