Sustainability Channel

Italian painting resplendent at Bucharest

On Friday 16 September art triumphed at Bucharest thanks to Pirelli Romania, which has brought light back to “Susanna e I Vecchioni”, a masterpiece of Italian art painted in the 17^th century by Alessandro Varotari, known as the Padovanino.

Pirelli sustained the restoration of this important work, which was carried out with great care by the specialists of the National Museum of Art in Bucharest, a difficult task concluded in a record time of almost three months.

President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano, who was making a two-day state visit to Romania at the time, inaugurated the masterpiece at the national museum.

Also attending were the Italian Ambassador to Romania, Mario Cospito, the director general of Pirelli Tyres Romania, Giuseppe Cangelosi and representatives of the Italian community in Romania.

The support of Pirelli Romania for the Museum of National Art in Bucharest is part of the numerous social and cultural activities set in motion by the Group in the country. They range from its partnership with the University of Craiova on the subject of technological innovation to the Italian culture promotional project in Slatina, collaboration with the Niguarda Hospital in Milan and the InterCampus initiative with FC Internazionale Milano at Slatina.

‘My Time for Japan’: here’s our project

We have been able to raise a really significant amount of money with our ‘My Time for Japan’ campaign: our many colleagues around the world have donated a total of €112,855.22, and with the company’s contribution that sum has now doubled to over €225,000.

So how do we select the recipients of our money? Well, it’s not that easy to identify a solidarity project in one of the world’s most industrialised countries like Japan. But we have decided to aim for the children and their hunger for “food for the soul”. For their need to overcome the traumas and difficulties of the post-earthquake.

So what have we done?

With the help of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), who were most helpful as our partners in the ‘My Time for Haiti’ project, we made contact with the Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA), ONP internationally active in various parts of Asia and in particular in the area of Japan devastated by the earthquake.

The SVA proposed that we support a community building project, contributing to financing the so-called “itinerant libraries”, which have already been successfully experimented with in other Asian countries in similar situations. Itinerant libraries are a means by which volunteers create aggregation initiatives devoted first and foremost to children, but the relative families who have experienced the earthquake also benefit as many of them live in temporary houses. We are to devote all of the money raised by the ‘My Time for Japan’ project to buying a vehicle that acts as an itinerant library, as well as thousands of books.

Books and reading initiatives will be taken to 32 stations in the Iwate Prefecture, one of the areas devastated by the earthquake including Yamada Town, Otsuchi Town, Ofunato City and Rikuzentakata City to reach 2,500 children.

Fairy stories, poetry, comics, and that’s not all. Thousands of Japanese children will finally be able to go back to reading the books they prefer and receive the necessary support  to smile again, also thanks to ‘My Time for Japan’, a solidarity initiative that distinguishes us for the mobilisation of colleagues and companies together and our direct involvement in choosing the destination of the project.

Request information: mytimeforjapan@pirelli.com

Millions of Smiles for the children of Slatina

Millions of Smiles is a tournament that was held on Saturday 2 July and Sunday 3 July in Slatina as a counter towards the third InterCampus Romania, the project promoted by Pirelli Tyres Romania that uses the game of football and other activities as instruments of social integration.

This year, 350 children from the city of Slatina took part in the event, as well as others from the southern regions of Romania.

The initiative, which took place as a result of the support of the Municipality of Slatina, FC Internazionale and the volunteers of Onlus Communità Nuova Italia, was much liked by the children, who enjoyed two days of great fun.

For them there were sports competitions and other creative activities, like face painting, a photographic and painting workshop, karaoke and volleyball, all organised at the same time as some exciting football matches.

To the joy of the little participants, there were many surprises and they were presented with trophies, prizes and footballs offered by the local authorities, together with the director of Pirelli Romania, Giuseppe Cangelosi.