The project
Dear Friends,
I’d like to avoid being rhetorical and talking about the sense of duty, but undoubtedly, the feeling that sometimes inspires me is pretty close to this; it is a way to give back to neighbours part of the fortune given to me by fate.
During my life, I had the chance to transform a passion into a profession, I achieved thousands of good things, travelled the world and, thanks also to all these experiences, when destiny put on my way the most difficult challenge, not only I overcame it but, in a certain way, it became an opportunity.
This is where the idea of Bimbingamba came from.
An evening, together with Sergio Campo, after a glass of a good red Tuscan wine, we started talking about a new project for the association. Thinking back to the path I went through I had the idea: let’s exploit all the technical knowledge I acquired during my rehabilitation and, with the help of all kind persons that I met along this way, give birth to a project to ease the path of all those children that are desperately looking for this chance to get back their life as normal as possible.
Every year, due to illnesses, accidents and wars, a lot of kids find themselves in need of reinventing their own lives after the loss of one or more limbs. This happens all the time, not only in Africa or in the ex Yugoslavia, but in our country as well, right at our doorstep. If for an adult the expenses to create a prosthesis are high, for a child they are even higher, because children’s prosthesis need constant maintenance to adjust them to the natural process of growth. Most of the times, the National Health System covers the necessities of these little victims but sometimes there are holes that for some kids risk to be chasms.
If no-one is in charge of taking care of those children and their families do not have the economic means to providing to the necessities of those little kids, who can help them?
"Let’s not leave them on their own" is the summary of what Sergio and I said that night, winking at each other, and the idea seem to be much more than a good one.
After that, I talked about it around and everyone enthusiastically agreed to help. Claudio Panizzi and Franco Ferri, respectively the physiotherapist and the technician orthopedist that followed my rehabilitation, who now are among my closest friends, gave their availability to follow the project’s technical aspects. Doctor Claudio Marcello Costa, inventor of the Clinica Mobile, that has been following the MotoGP for many years now, offered his precious consultancy to study every case from a medical and possibly therapeutical viewpoint.
The RTM-Ortopedia of Budrio-Bologna, with the incumbents Giampaolo Rimondini, Franco Tedeschi and Moreno Marchesini, gave the availability of their highly qualified structure at the minimum possible expense.
The Otto-Bock Italy, brand that imports to our country prosthetic products from the German home factory, offered their collaboration giving an important boost to the whole initiative.
But Bimbingamba does not stop to this: in order to give the highest possible level of transparency to the project a surety committee will be established both to take care of deciding the necessary lists and to monitor on the investment of funds harvested in a responsible way, guaranteeing with their reputation. This is to reciprocate the help and the trust of everyone that, with their donations, will make all of this possible.
Yesterday it was just an idea, today it is a project, "Bimbingamba" will be tomorrow the reality that will give these kids back their right to joy.
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In a terrible period of my life, when in just twenty days I first lost my dad and then my only brother, Niccolò, doctor passed away on the 9th October 2001 together with four other people in the accident of the heli-ambulance “Pegaso 2”, I desperately tried to find a way to get out of that moment full of sorrow.
I forced myself to look at people in worse conditions than mine and all those families living with the tragedy of children’s illnesses came to my mind.
Therefore, thinking of them, the Charity "Niccolò Campo“ Onlus got into shape with the aim of supporting ill kids.
Thanks to all supporters, we achieved important results in collaboration with the Pediatric Hospital Misericordia of Grosseto.
In this phase of strong development and growth, the “Niccolò Campo” is getting out of its Maremma’s boundaries and on the 31st of March 2007, a reception house has been opened at the Ospedale Pediatrico Apuano; this is the first step towards the fulfillment of new objectives that come abreast of the existing ones.
This way of living my grief, believe me, gave a new and deep meaning to my life and the awareness of concretely helping other people awards me with some very positive feelings that can be compared only to those I feel when I hug my children and I see them smiling healthy and serene.
Sergio Campo
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Every year, in Italy as well as in the whole world, a lot of children find themselves in the difficult situation of being unable to live their lives without smiles, serenity, jumps and running.
Due to accidents, severe illnesses, injuries, wars and conflicts, these children lose the joy of the simplest actions since they cannot count on their arms or legs.
Our objective: to offer to families in need the chance to solve the problem for the loss of superior or inferior limbs.
How we work: thanks to the sensibility and the collaboration of the rehabilitation center MTR of Budrio and OTTOBOCK, prosthesis provider, and counting on the precious work of the physiotherapists Franco Ferri and Claudio Panizzi, we can accommodate some children and assist them for the time needed by treatments and rehabilitation.
