Vmaternity wear: the retro name shouldn’t be misleading. Tells about an association that has deep roots in Milanese life: he turned 100 on January 17th. And it keeps the effectiveness of the origins intact. The one that in a Milan of early 1900s fertile with new social initiatives – the Mariuccia nursery school, the gynecological clinic and the tumor institute, both at the instigation of Luigi Mangiagalli, doctor and mayor of Milan, to name just a few – places the network of relationships and resources of the wealthy at the service of the most vulnerable of the city, traditionally attentive to social issues.
Is exactly Luigi Mangiagalli is one of the driving forces behind the birth of this association, in the premises of the clinic later named after him in via Commenda. It does together with Ada Bolchini Dell’Acqua who was its president for a long time. At the time it was the Commission and since 2009 it has become the Ada Bolchini Dell’Acqua Visitor Foundation for maternitywhich has Francesco Poschi Meuron as president and vice-president Maria Giulia Piovene Porto Godi.
Mothers in Milan in 1924
«Ada Bolchini had already done nice things for the destitute girls who arrived in Milan» she says Maria Giulia Piovene Porto Godi. «They were often women kicked out of their homes for being mothers and unmarried. They arrived in Milan without the means or resources to give direction to their lives. With the establishment of the Maternity Visitor Commission, Ada’s momentum becomes a system. The benefactresses distribute means for the child’s support, clothes and milk and they offer a first accommodation in the premises of Senavra. It was the former mental hospital in Milan, which was located at Corso XXII marzo 50.”
The house designed by Zanuso
The maternal home inaugurated in 1956.
«After the war, the solidarity impulse experienced a new active season. The architect Zanuso designed the Maternity house built with donations from the ladies of the CommissionHere mothers and children found accommodation, and excellent child-minders were trained. An initiative also comes to life which is somewhat of a symbol of the association: the Little Green Book. A column of benefactorsncreated as a tool to strengthen the solidarity network. Even today, between the addresses of assistance centres, nurseries, hospitals and emergency rooms, but also restaurants and hotels, and the names of those who contribute to the solidarity project, it is an extraordinary fundraising driver. To which many in Milan want to belong”, continues Maria Giulia Piovene Porto Godi. Proud grandmother of four grandchildren, volunteering has been the common thread in her life, ever since she was 15 years old when she went to let the children in Don Orione’s day nursery play.
What the visitors do
Maria Giulia Piovene Porto Godi.
«I arrived at the maternity visitors by co-optation. In Bompani Bolchini, the daughter of Ada Bolchini, who directed the Commission for many of her 101 years, and who knew my parents, invited me to participate. Our commitment, too now that we have remained a group not too large, nor too young, it remained the same. Welcoming, providing support, diapers, clothes, childcare objects, powdered milk to mothers and children in need who are cared for at the Mangiagalli clinic in Milan. Just as Mangiagalli is included in the organizational structure of the Polyclinic, we too are part of its very rich and efficient solidarity network. This allows our help to go beyond our strength and our specificities, offering indirect support, beyond the specific one that we provide for as long as it may be necessary.”
10 minutes from Mangiagalli
Casa Costanza, inaugurated in 2013.
The flagship today? “AND’ Casa Costanza, an apartment 10 minutes from the Mangiagalli Clinic opened in 2013. It offers hospitality to mothers who have come to Milan for a difficult pregnancy or knowing that only here they could find the right care for your child, perhaps even before birth. Once again many are Italians who come from other parts of the country and who the social workers who work within Mangiagalli inform us because they need support. The neonatal intensive care unit does not provide beds for the parents and mothers who come to us, and they can stay for 10 days or seven months, they do not have a help network in Milan, nor can they afford to pay for accommodation, even at modest prices ».
No euro is lost
A common room of Casa Costanza, which has 10 beds.
«Our concrete commitment as Visitors is to the house» continues Maria Giulia Piovene Porto Godi, «where we are the shoulder to cry on or the voice to seek comfort from, or even the guide who accompanies you on a walk around the city to have some fun. And in the office to deliver parcels and essential goods by appointment. The rest, the social and psychological support, is done very well by the figures in charge within the Clinic. But we also continue our fundraising activities, thanks to a valid network of contacts. With which we also support other people’s projects. We are financing a project on breastfeeding and epilepsy at the San Paolo Hospital in Milan. The next objective is to support an initiative of Dino Ferrari center and the University of Milan on spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) of the child. In short, we never tire of getting involved and directing all the funds we manage to raise towards solidarity.”
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