Mido: back from first humanitarian mission

Last Sunday the first humanitarian mission in which Mido partnered CBM Italia Onlus ended.

Mido has been working with the nonprofit association since this year and together they have created Anch’io Mido (I am with Mido), an ad hoc print campaign in support of preventing blindness in developing countries. The campaign testimonials are entrepreneurs and representatives of companies in Italy and abroad and Mido, a strong supporter of the project for preventing Xerophthalmia, will donate one euro for each visitor to the 2010 edition of the exhibition.

Thanks to the numerous and spontaneous donations by testimonials and visitors to Mido 2010, the funds raised have and will continue to allow sufficient vitamin A to be bought to save a large number of children from blindness.

To underscore Mido’s commitment to this project, some of its representatives took part in the humanitarian mission to Ethiopia, December 9 through 12. Giampiero Masciadri, Mido Show Manager, Elena Berton representing Arlecchino company, and Paolo Seminara for Italian-Style, went to Addis Ababa and talked about what they saw there.

“From a human point of view, it was a wonderful, but very moving experience. We saw real hardship and what amazed me most was the dignity of the people, despite the difficulties they have to contend with”. This was the first comment by Masciadri, who was visibly moved on his return from the mission to Ethiopia.

The group was based at a mission of Ethiopian nuns in Addis Ababa, although activities centered in the countryside near Nazareth, where the nuns run a hospital and a school. During the day spent at the St. Francis Health Centre, the first screenings were carried out and vitamin A was distributed to the children at the school. There were some very serious disorders, cases of blindness, forms of cancer, some congenital and others caused by negligence and the total absence of hygiene due to the lack of water. There are about 2,000 children at the structure and these first checks made it possible to start taking action to try to protect their eyesight.

One of the main problems, which obviously has an effect on sight, is the total lack of water. This means that people do not have acceptable hygienic conditions and, consequently, diseases and ailments affecting the eyes are widespread. Only a few weeks ago, the government made its latest appeal to the international community to help the 6 million people who have been unable to harvest crops, their only source of support, because of drought.

“This is only the first step” – concluded Masciadri - “we all hope that we can create a long-lasting collaboration with CBM so that we can make a constant contribution to helping those who are less fortunate.”