About the Foundation

Our Mission
The Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Vimercate (MB), Italy, founded by Pasquale Pistorio in April 2005, with the mission of improving the living conditions of children in developing countries with a focus on education, by providing long-terms scholarships for underprivileged children from Primary to Professional School, and by building and improving school infrastructure. We ensure that every child we support also has access to basic nutrition and primary health care. The Foundation subsequently addresses issues of women and community sustainable development through agriculture and income generation opportunities.
In accomplishing our mission, we wish to equally spread awareness on the living conditions of children in the world and promote values of solidarity, cooperation, justice, giving, and volunteering.

Our Dream
Our dream is that children’s rights as stated in the “UN Convention on the Rights of the Child” be fully implemented, enforced, and respected in every country of the world.
We dream that every child can be entitled to an education and to health care assistance; that no child will ever be subjected to exploitation, poverty, hunger, deprivation, or suffering from poverty or cruelty; that every child’s right to innocence will be respected; that every child will be entitled to protection and to development of his or her highest potential.

Our Reach
6 countries
19,138 school years sponsored
637 students have obtained a professional school degree
50 school and village infrastructure projects completed

Our Core Values

1. Fostering a culture of solidarity and volunteerism through example, involvement in our projects, and raising awareness on conditions of children worldwide.
2. Integrity and transparency in our operations with our stakeholders and donors, committed to being accountable for how every Euro is spent.
3. Efficiency by making every Euro stretch to the maximum and getting to where it is most needed.

Our Approach
With over 264 million school age children today in the world not attending school (UNESCO), we are aware that obstacles to education, although primarily stemming from extreme poverty, can be varied and multifaceted. Therefore, our approach has always been a holistic one, starting from the individual needs of our beneficiaries and the context and communities in which they live. Our aim is to provide free quality long-term education to all the children we can reach. To ensure that they succeed in school, we provide not only access to quality education, but also to basic health care and nutrition, as malnutrition and health issues are major impediments to a child’s overall development. Children on scholarship receive medical check-ups, basic health care, and nutritious meals served in school. We also deliver life skills training, health education, and career counselling programs in schools, to complement students’ academic learning and provide critical guidance in their adolescent years to orient them towards their future careers and goals.

We work with NGO partners on the field with proven track record and experience, and which share our values of minimising overhead costs to maximise available resources to benefit our students. We also work with a network of volunteers who contribute skills, time, and work in the areas of graphic design, website publishing, on site missions and auditing, and for fundraising activities. This allows us to keep our staff expenditures to a minimum.

Our aim is for our beneficiaries to have the same opportunities as their peers around the world, supporting their education from preschool to professional school and/or university. Where necessary, we build and improve school infrastructures such as libraries, sanitation facilities, kitchens, canteens, and computer labs, to optimise and enhance the learning environment and experience. We work with relevant stakeholders such as teachers, parents, and community leaders to identify needs, implement, and monitor programs. Our ultimate objective is for these children to live to their full potential and successfully access the job market once they have completed their studies in order to pursue the life they desire and break their families’ intergenerational cycle of poverty.

We assess the progress and impact of all our programs through selected key indicators. For our scholarship programs, we track not only the number of students enrolled, individually profiled to monitor their progress, but also indicators such as pass rate to the next school level, retention rate in the program, teacher attendance rate, and student teacher ratio. We try to identify reasons for drop outs from the program and address these issues with our local partners. We work with partners that have a strong proven track record, experience, and expertise, and who share our values and mission. We have no political or religious affiliation.