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European Partnership to Help Disabled Children Celebrated in Rome (20/09/06)

An important partnership which helps the most severely disabled children learn how to move independently was celebrated on 22 September in Rome. Hosted by the British Embassy to Italy and attended by Cherie Blair, this event marked the collaboration between MOVE Europe and La Nostra Famiglia to roll out the European MOVE Programme across Italy.

Two children who have benefited from this partnership and the MOVE Programme: Alex, aged 16, and Fabio, aged 9, demonstrated how their lives have changed as they stood up (with a little help from their mothers) and walked across the room in the Ambassador’s residence at Villa Wolkonsky to greet Mrs Blair.  Fabio’s mother, Lina, said, “It means so much to Fabio to play with his friends just like any other child.  This was not possible before he started on the MOVE Programme in S.Vito al Tagliamento PN, with Doctor M. Elisabetta Gaiatto.”

Mrs Blair commented that “MOVE proves what is in every parent’s heart, that their child does have the ability to do more, be more, and improve their quality of life now and in the future.”

The charity MOVE Europe, based in London, and La Nostra Familigia, an ecclesiastical Institute of Research and Rehabilitation based in Bosisio Parini, Italy, which runs rehabilitation centres across the country, have been working together for the past five years.  They have helped more than 500 of the most severely disabled children in Italy to take their first steps to independence.

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