Hope for the suffering

The pilot took off. On 25 May 1911, in the office of the Circulating Library, at 18 Via Costa, Don Lolli brought into being the Pia Opera Assistenza Infermi Poveri a Domicilio, formed to care for the sick in their own homes. Five others joined him: Liduina Montanari Ghigi, Pia Ghigi, Maria Belletti, Caterina Frontali and Annunziata Ravaglia, who helped him in organising the charity and in the home visits.
As was to be expected, in a matter of months their activities expanded: a sewing and knitting workshop (the textile industry in Italy was still a leading sector), a medical centre, various forms of paediatric treatment and much more.

“The main programme, the final, ultimate goal may be summed up as follows: to go to the spirit by way of the substance, to care for the body in order to save the soul”.
Don Angelo Lolli

“A Women’s Society has been set up in Ravenna with the name of Pia Opera Assistenza Infermi Poveri a Domicilio, which aims to protect the Poor and Sick in every way, in terms of hygiene, finance and morale. […] It intends to carry out [the objectives of] all those public and private initiatives that aim to relieve this kind of suffering persons. These initiatives are home visits; subsidies in the form of cash, food, household linen, medicines; springtime treatment for children; summer treatment for consumptives; Nursing Society; community hygiene training; Committees to fight tuberculosis; First Aid teams; doctors’ offices; sanatoriums”.
From the Statutes of the Pia Opera Assistenza Infermi Poveri a Domicilio