The Patrons of the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital will take part in the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 in New York, which will start on Monday 18 September with a special conversation, via remote connection, between President Bill Clinton and Pope Francis.

Established a few months ago as a Corporation, the Patrons of Bambino Gesù have the task of helping the Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital to make its mission known and to support it above all in its humanitarian activities, international projects and some “special projects”, such as the Pediatric Palliative Care Center dedicated to “incurable” children.

Every year, hundreds of children from all over the world – with very serious pathologies – are welcomed and treated free of charge at Bambino Gesù. Over the last 18 months, these have been joined by over two thousand Ukrainian patients, forced to leave their country due to the war , who found care and welcome in the hospital with their families.

Bambino Gesù is involved in health training projects in 16 countries around the world, from South America to the Far East, passing through the Middle East and Africa. The objective is to allow less developed countries to respond to the demand for health and local needs, in the belief that only the human and professional growth of local healthcare personnel – doctors and nurses – can bring about significant and lasting changes in the care of children . The projects are based on specific agreements signed with the Governments or health institutions of the various States, and also involve international humanitarian organizations.

Finally, among the special projects of the Hospital supported by the Patrons, there is the completion of the new Pediatric Palliative Care Center, inaugurated in 2022 in the town of Passoscuro, on the Lazio coast. It is dedicated to the reception of children and adolescents with rare, incurable and highly complex healthcare diseases. It has so far welcomed more than 300 patients and their families.

All these projects, the international activities, the humanitarian care and the Pediatric Palliative Care Centre, require large financial support of around 8 million euros and are financed exclusively with fundraising. For this reason, the Patrons of the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital have been established, who will bring these needs to the attention of the international audience of the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 Meeting.

“In the field of health – wrote the Holy Father in a Letter – today more than ever the first and most concrete form of charity is science, the ability to care, which however must be for everyone, for the poor and marginalized, not only for those who can pay […] The dream of the Bambino Gesù Hospital, the Pope’s dream, is to help bring science and humanity to all children who need treatment for very serious illnesses”

(Pope Francis, Santa Marta, 7 September 2022).