Specchio dei tempi is a foundation supported by the community of La Stampa readers and thousands of donors worldwide. The first subscription was launched in 1955, to “make the Christmas of two orphans less sad and desolate.” A young bricklayer had been run over, leaving behind a wife and two little boys: readers embraced that family, with the same generosity with which they now support the more than 85 projects that Specchio has activated in Turin, Italy and around the world.
From the tsunami to Covid-19, via earthquakes and floods, in emergencies and in everyday life we are close to those who suffer, with interventions for hospitals, schools, and the weakest. We do concrete things, in immediate times, because those in real difficulty cannot wait.
We work hard and we never stop. We are a foundation that puts its heart into it and for 59 years has been trying, every day, to give hope.
We believe in transparency and timeliness. That is why we always tell how we use donations and try, for every help, to be quick: we know that the most fragile people cannot wait.
For more than 60 years we have been committed to giving hope to those who are suffering, and we have learned that in every project you have to put love, experience, seriousness.
So, every day, we put our hearts into it. That of La Stampa readers and Specchio dei tempi donors.
All newspapers have a story. Only La Stampa, the newspaper in Turin, has a heart: Specchio dei tempi, a foundation that has been transforming the generosity of thousands of donors into concrete projects for the most vulnerable since 1976.
On Dec. 17, editor Giulio De Benedetti introduced in La Stampa the column Specchio dei tempi: a space reserved for readers, who can write opinions, recount experiences, denounce injustices. But also offer their solidarity, moral and material, to families in need or victims of episodes of suffering. The first donations go to two children who were orphaned by their father in an accident in Turin, a tragedy recounted that day in the pages of the news.
As the years go by, readers decide to support the people overwhelmed by the most serious national and international disasters. The first major subscription is opened after the Vajont disaster, in which 1,900 people died. Immediately the newspaper begins a race against time to get readers' aid to the people of Friuli. Mirror learns that in emergencies it is not enough to do well, you have to do fast.
Reports of famine in India move Europe: the people of Turin mobilize and in one month raise nearly a billion liras. Charters loaded with food donated by La Stampa readers take off from Caselle. It is the beginning of an extraordinary story of international solidarity, which will see Specchio dei tempi play a leading role in Africa, Asia and America, in the world's poorest countries. From Haiti to Ecuador, via Syrian refugee camps.
Sicily is on its knees: 16 tremors, 380 dead. A subscription is opened and five journalists begin to travel around the destroyed towns to distribute cash, relieve the desperation and cover the first needs. A receipt is made of every donation and then a long and punctilious list. With the same transparency are handled the 130 million euros that Specchio manages to raise in 1970, for the restoration of the famous bronze horses of St. Mark's in Venice.
An institution dedicated to solidarity projects is created with the enthusiasm of readers and journalists: the La Stampa - Specchio dei tempi Foundation is born on February 24 and immediately launches the "Thirteenth Salaries of Friendship". An initiative that continues today and offers practical support to poor and lonely elderly people. The first contribution is 30,000 lire, given to 30 elderly people. By now the over 65’s involved in the project are 2000 every Christmas, and each one receives 500 euros, for a total of 1 million euros donated.
Three thousand dead, three hundred thousand displaced. Campania is devastated by a huge tragedy. Thanks to the generosity of the readers, a village with 70 houses is built in Lioni. Already four years earlier, in 1976, the foundation had mobilized for the earthquake in Friuli: columns of caravans loaded with aid had left from Piedmont. In the 70s and 80s, Specchio dei tempi specializes in bringing immediate help in emergencies and in 1988 it is recognized as a non-profit organization.
In early November, the geography of the provinces of Asti, Alessandria and Cuneo is overwhelmed by the fury of water and mud. The flood devastates Piedmont on the Tanaro axis, and the readers of La Stampa collect the record figure of 25 billion lire. The highest ever recorded in Italy with a non-television subscription. Bridges, schools, kindergartens: donations turn into dozens of projects. For months, Specchio's correspondents distribute envelopes with cash to the most desperate families.
A fire strikes in the heart of Turin: the Guarini chapel is on fire, the city is shocked and upset and once again Specchio dei tempi is there. 1.24 billion lire is donated, a fundamental support for the twenty-year restoration concluded in 2018 and directed by the Superintendency. Also in 1997, the foundation intervenes in Umbria and Marche, after the earthquake, rebuilding a school and outpatient clinics.
The tsunami in Sri Lanka, Thailand and India brings Specchio to a new awareness: the possibility of intervening with multi-year initiatives also abroad. So the foundation decides to remain in Sri Lanka even after the emergency and to offer medical support to the injured, it builds a village consisting of five family houses. In 2012 the village is reconverted to host girls who are victims of abuse or neglect: our daily commitment against violence towards women.
After the famine of 2011, Specchio decides to intervene in Somaliland and in 2012 opens a subscription to build a hospital in Hargeisa. Equipped with 45 beds and an emergency room, the facility is donated to the local government. In 2018 the non-profit organization creates another neonatology department and in 2019 we double our commitment in Africa by restructuring the schools of Nganzo, Rwanda. We activate a mobile clinic programme to treat Burma's children.
Thanks to a legacy and the generosity of readers, Specchio begins a complex renovation of the Children's Hospital of Turin. First the outpatient clinics, then cardiology, cardiorization, neuropsychiatry, and finally oncohematology: in just a few years, more than 5 million euros are allocated for four different construction sites. In the summer of 2019, a baby is given a heart transplant and is reborn, after more than 500 days of hospitalization and a record surgery in the Specchio wards.
Thanks to the legacy and generosity of readers, Specchio begins a complex restructuring of the Turin children's hospital. First outpatient clinics, then cardiology, CPR and finally neuropsychiatry: in five years over 5 million euros are allocated to four different construction sites. In the summer of 2019, a child receives a heart transplant and is reborn, after over 500 days of hospitalization and a record intervention in the Specchio wards.
After rebuilding the schools hit by the earthquake in Abruzzo and Emilia, Specchio adopts Arquata del Tronto, a municipality that in the summer of 2016 has 51 victims and is razed to the ground. Thanks to a collection of over 3 million euros, the foundation builds the school complex (2017) and the gym (2018) in record time; promotes a tender for small businesses (2019); and launches a family aid plan: for each infant, a cheque for 2 thousand euros.
A help desk in the heart of the city. In via Santa Maria 6h in Turin, the "emergency room" of Specchio Point opens: a space where 12 needy families are welcomed every day. From bills to unpaid rents, problems are solved in a few hours. Especially those of single mothers, to whom a specific programme has been dedicated since 2017, which in addition to providing financial assistance promotes reintegration into the workplace.
The twenty-sixth school rebuilt by Specchio dei tempi opens in September: it is located at the foot of a volcano, at 2000 meters, and welcomes 100 children of families, victims of the earthquake that rocked Mexico a year earlier. Thanks to the "Let's connect the children of the world" project, Mexican students make friends online with children from other Specchio schools: from that of Arquata to the one created in 2015 in Nepal, at 4000 meters, on the slopes of Everest.
A 1.2 million euro commitment and a large construction site at the Sant'Anna hospital: to be at the side of women who are fighting cancer, Specchio dei tempi restructures the Turin oncology day hospital. The footballer Barbara Bonansea is chosen as the symbol of the battle against female cancer, the first testimonial of its history. In the same year, the radiology department of the Mauriziano Hospital of Turin is also renewed.
As in all emergencies Specchio dei tempi is present: immediately. To combat Coronavirus, the foundation raises over 10 million euros, with donations from 70 countries around the world immediately transformed into practical aid. In the first 100 days, one million items of protective equipment and dozens of machines are delivered to Piedmont hospitals; 17 thousand free grocery deliveries to families in need in six regions and 430 aid contributions to companies in difficulty in Turin, Cuneo and Sassari. Hundreds of sanitizing kits and 1000 tablets are supplied to schools, to encourage distance learning first and then recovery.
The Foundation has continued its support for the most vulnerable: aid to families through Specchio Point has increased, as well as the number of "Thirteenth Month of Friendship" grants distributed during the Christmas period. To ensure continuous assistance to the most fragile elderly people, we have expanded the Forza Nonni! project in Piedmont: today, 150 seniors over 80 receive daily support and companionship.
Following the earthquake in Haiti, immediate relief efforts were launched, including aid and shelter for the injured, along with the shipment of a container filled with essential goods.
This year was marked by interventions to support the victims of the Ukrainian conflict, ranging from transportation to Italy and financial assistance for refugee families (in collaboration with the Ukrainian Consulate in Turin) to the establishment of shelters in Ukraine and the provision of vehicles, meals, and other essential supplies.
Following the flood that struck the Marche region in September 2022, Specchio dei Tempi, in synergy with Specchio d’Italia, immediately took action.
On February 6, Specchio dei Tempi and Specchio d’Italia launched a subscription to support the populations affected by the earthquake in Syria and Turkey.
The flood that hit Emilia-Romagna in May found an immediate response with the collection of approximately 2.3 million euros, thanks also to the important contributions of the Satispay Community, Luve-Group, Lavazza and Iveco..
In addition, the Forza Bimbi! project was born, selected by Con i Bambini within the framework of the Fund for the fight against child educational poverty.
We reopened the Capucci Infant School in Lugo, donated a neonatal ventilator to Sant'Anna Hospital in Turin and a modern diagnostic tool to the Mauriziano Hospital. Supported communities affected by the flooding in the Susa Valley and restored the orphanage in Kekkadura, Sri Lanka.
In November, raised 60,000 euros for the flood in Valencia; in December, launched a campaign to rebuild the Mirror of Times village in Ukraine.
Also donated household appliances to families in lower Romagna affected by the September flood.