SOLIDARITY

A FUNDAMENTAL VALUE FOR THE TRENTINO COMMUNITY

Solidarity is part of the 'DNA' of the Trentino people. It is not by chance that Trentino is the area with the highest number of volunteers, in a wide variety of sectors. It is a value which begins to become a part of people's lives from childhood. It is sufficient to recall that out of a population of just over 500 thousand (mostly adults), more than one thousand young people (aged 12 to 18) are volunteer pupils of the Fire Service.

It is with respect for this tradition that nine works dedicated to the nativity, made by the wood-carvers Claudio Bonecher, Roberto Boninsegna, Tiziano Deflorian, Florian Grott, Giuseppe Mich, Marco Nones, Roberto Nones, Egidio Petri and Renzo Zeni, will be sold through an online auction at the site www.presepitrentini.it. The stages in the creation of the works by the master craftsmen from Trentino will be documented at the site dedicated to the initiative.

The profits of the auction will go to charity, supporting two humanitarian projects which are particularly dear to the Autonomous Province of Trento. Both are dedicated to Africa, the continent which more than any other suffers from poverty at every level.
One project involves Tanzania and in particular Dodoma, where the Autonomous Province of Trento has funded and realised a health and welfare centre – with the collaboration of AVOS in Carisolo (Trento). A number of Trentino doctors are planning a training programme for local health staff, a project which will involve them for a period of two years.
The other is in Sierra Leone, in Freetown, where the Autonomous Province of Trento, the non-profit making association EDUS (Education and Development) and the Cassa Rurale in the Val di Fiemme are constructing a centre for training and wood-working. In this city in Sierra Leone more than 50 per cent of the population are unemployed. With this project, EDUS, a Trentino volunteer association which has been present in Freetown for some time, organising a project for the recovery and training of young people, intends to make available the skills and professionalism of two master woodworkers from Tesero during a training programme which will last twelve months.

If you would also like to participate with us in the two humanitarian projects, link up to the site www.presepitrentini.it, adopt the nativity figures by the Trentino wood-carvers and your help will support those who need to believe and construct hope for the future.