Present during the most violent earthquakes to strike Italy over the last decades – from Belice and Irpinia to Aquila and central Italy in 2016 – not to mention the migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean, the Order of Malta’s Italian Relief Corps (CISOM) celebrates its 50th birthday. Half a century of commitment in which the Relief Corps has grown until it now numbers some three thousand volunteers nationwide. It was 24th June 1970 when the Order’s Grand Magistry first established its volunteer corps in Italy. Since then, in over 18,300 days of activity, the corps’ doctors, nurses, rescuers, psychologists and logisticians have been there for all the major natural disasters and for numerous minor ones, offering medical and social assistance to the most vulnerable.
The Lieutenant ad-interim, Fra’ Ruy Gonçalo do Valle Peixoto de Villas Boas, called Gerardo Solaro del Borgo, president of the Italian Relief Corps, to ask him to give his best wishes for this important anniversary to all the corps’ volunteers.
“Charity and efficiency are the words that inspire us,” Gerardo Solaro del Borgo said in a press release. “Over these years we have been present in the major national emergencies, always in the awareness of belonging to a system in which helping others is a priority. CISOM intends to continue renewing itself, making its activities increasingly useful for others.
In the Covid-19 emergency, CISOM volunteers have also been in the front line alongside Italian national and local institutions in tackling the pandemic and helping the population during the lockdown period. “In a decidedly challenging 2020, in which all the volunteers have given the best of their humanity in the communities most affected by the pandemic, we dedicate this milestone to the men and women who animate the capacity of a corps that profoundly renews itself without forgetting the lived experience,” Gerardo Solaro del Borgo concluded.
