EFFETA' : our family of Bethlehem!
"Mark (Mark 7:31-37) presents the miracle performed by Jesus that restores hearing to a deaf man." So begins the President of the John Paul II Foundation, Andrea Bottinelli, speaking about the link between Effetà and the Foundation.
"The ancient Aramaic word "Effetà," which means "open up," is not only emblematic for fostering communication for the hearing impaired; it is paradigmatic for what the Foundation aims to do: to open gazes and intelligences in an area of suffering and exclusion and to feel it is one's own." For more than a five-year period, in fact, the Foundation has been supporting the Bethlehem Institute and the Palestinian girls and boys who find shelter, care and a life project within those walls.
"We feel that we belong to the Effetà Institute family and, like any belonging, it consumes desires, illusions, joys, achievements, renunciations, failures like any creature, which even if not deprived of hearing, sometimes remains deaf to the perception of silence," Bottinelli continued.
The bond between the Tuscan non-profit organization and the Pontifical Institute is now well established. "Especially at this time it is necessary to stand by them," explains the president.
The Foundation's contribution over the years has always varied according to the needs of the school: "We have implemented projects funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, such as the just-concluded "Let's Feel Good!", where we provided scholarships, audiometric instruments, and, with funds from the 5×1000 we contributed to the renovation of student spaces."
Support from the John Paul II Foundation has never been lacking in Bethlehem, and again this Christmas, with the "Hope in a Time of War" campaign, they will support the school so that it will always remain a safe place for all hearing-impaired children in Palestine .