The Robert Hollman Foundation Board met in Cannero Riviera just these days to reminisce and to celebrate with all the staff of the Center on Lake Maggiore the important milestone reached of 45 years of activity.
It was July 1979, when the Cannero Pilot Center, the only one of its kind in Italy at the time, was opened with the goal of providing “medical-social rehabilitation and recovery for blind multi-morbid children from zero to six years old.” The facility in September of that year began to accommodate the first children (it could accommodate up to a maximum of twelve) who began to stay with periodic returns to their families during the holidays. The little ones lived their daily lives cared for by the caregivers, who defined and implemented educational, rehabilitative and therapeutic programs and activities according to personalized goals.
Forty-five years later, each year the Center on Lake Maggiore welcomes more than one hundred children from zero to four years old and their families to its premises through stays designed and structured based on their needs and requirements.
Declare Maria Eleonora Reffo, general director, and Elena Mercuriali, clinical director: “The residency model, which has reached its current physiognomy through a long shared journey of professionalism and experience that began back in 1979, places children and families at the center of the care process, in the desire to support growth, well-being and thus quality of life.”
