Cultural project

Child abandonment is a complex phenomenon, as well as a structured one, that is too often ignored and underestimated by the media.

In order to raise public awareness of this issue and inform public opinion on this emergency, Amici dei Bambini chose to adopt a holistic approach.

The project’s goals

Our goal is to trigger a profound cultural change: from a logic of social welfare – expressed through institutionalisation – to a culture of nurturing, revolving around the emotional links with a family.

The Cultural Project includes 3 types of action:

• Study and research activities, through a considerable number of publications.
• Information activities aimed at raising public awareness of this issue, including events, meetings and seminars.
• Training and refresher meetings on child abandonment and family nurturing.

The most important initiatives:

• The creation of the Permanent Observatory on Abandonment: international experts and professionals whose activities contributed to the publication of two important reports on the abandonment emergency.
• The Il Melograno Project, an international network of associations, adoptive and foster families and young people living outside a family. The network, with 30 offices in 14 countries of the world, promotes activities and initiatives in favour of foster care.
• The Childout.org site, a site dedicated to sharing and analysing people’s experiences created thanks to a European Commission grant, gathers studies and research on the promotion of the rights of those children who are living outside a family.