Every year, over 5,500 babies are born prematurely in Italy: babies that need special care in neonatology wards and neonatal intensive care units just to stay alive. To mark the launch of the new 500, and to give these babies and their parents fresh hope, Fiat has teamed up with the nonprofit Albero della Vita Foundation in the latter’s project entitled “Un nido per Pollicino – Helping the little ones grow big”.

The initiative, whose promoter and scientific coordinator is Dr. Daniele Farina – chief of neonatology at the Sant’Anna hospital in Torino – is raising funds for building and improving neonatology and neonatal intensive care facilities in seven Italian hospitals, as well as for providing psychological support services for parents.

Donations can be made by sending a text message to the number 48586 from June 30 to July 15, 2007. Donations can also be made on-line by accessing the 500 website (www.fiat500.com), the Fiat website (www.fiat.it) and the Foundation’s website at www.alberodellavita.org. In addition, you can show your solidarity with the project by purchasing the “Fischia 500” music CD or T-shirts offered for sale in thirty Italian cities on July 5 and 6, and at all Fiat dealerships during the Open House weekend on July 7 and 8.

The funds raised by the project will be distributed to seven Italian hospitals, each with a strong local tradition in its own area: Torino’s Sant’Anna, Mangiagalli in Milano, Careggi in Florence, Gemelli in Rome, Monaldi in Naples, the Policlinico of Bari, and the Azienda Universitaria Policlinico in Palermo. In addition to these hospitals, the ZeroTre foundling home in Milano will also receive funding.

“We decided to support this project – explains Luca De Meo, Fiat Automobiles CEO – because it’s very much in line with the values of the 500, a car that looks to the future, that transmits joy and hope, that can bring a smile to every face. Because that’s how we think of the 500: a little car with a big heart. And we’re very pleased to be able to put this extraordinary power at the service of an initiative as deserving as this."
 

“We’re proud that an enterprise as important to the entire country as Fiat has chosen us as a partner. – announced Patrizio Paoletti, chairman of L’Albero della Vita Foundation, an independent humanitarian organization that has been working to protect and safeguard the rights of children and teenagers for over ten years – The project fits right in with our goals: helping a child today to make an adult happy tomorrow. An important part of our daily work is building consensus and attracting resources that we can redistribute to help satisfy the primary needs of modern society, which are first and foremost the needs of children."

“Un nido per Pollicino” will be assisted by a radio campaign with appeals to the public’s generosity by some of Italy’s most popular entertainers, who have agreed to donate their time – and their voices – to the charitable initiative.

List of the open-air presentations of the 500 hosted by 30 Italian cities on July 5 and 6, where CDs and T-shirts will be on sale in aid of “Un nido per Pollicino”: Alghero, Lungomare Dante near Via Leopardi; Bari, Piazza Ferrarese; Bologna, Piazza San Francesco; Brescia, Piazza della Loggia; Cagliari, Marina Piccola; Caserta, Piazza Vanvitelli; Catania, Piazza Università; Florence, Piazza in front of the Uffizi; Genoa, Piazza de Ferrari; Lecce, Piazza Sant’Oronzo; Livorno, Terrazza Mascagni; Milano, Piazza Duomo; Naples Piazza Plebiscito; Padova, Prato della Valle; Palermo, Piazza Politeama; Parma, Piazza Steccata; Perugia, Corso Vannucci; Pescara, Piazza della Rinascita; Pisa, Piazza dei Cavalieri; Reggio Calabria, Corso Matteotti; Roma, Piazza del Popolo; Terni, Piazza Tacito; Torino, Piazza San Carlo; Trento, Piazza Duomo; Treviso, Piazza della Borsa; Trieste, Piazza della Borsa; Udine, Piazza Duomo; Varese, Piazza della Repubblica; Viareggio, Piazza Mazzini; and Vicenza, Piazza dei Signori.