From the 1st October to the 30th November 2009 the San Raffaele del Monte Tabor Foundation, in collaboration with Telecom Italia, is promoting the first national charitable contest, where by calling a telephone number it is possible to donate and win at the same time. The initiative is taking place in occasion of World Diabetes Day – on the 14th November – in order to create public awareness of a disease that is growing throughout the world, suffered by both adults and children.
By calling the number 895 898 9598, made available by Telecom Italia, it will be possible to receive information about diabetes, donate funds to research and win numerous prizes.
The voice of Paolo Maldini, a Milan player and National football champion, responds to the call and provides scientific information about type I and II diabetes and about the contest which raffles off travel and accommodation for two people to the island of Mauritius as well as many other prizes including 50 Altec pc laptops and 100 shopping vouchers to the value of 50 euro to spend in all Carrefour Group supermarkets.
Proceeds from the calls – which cost a maximum of 4 euro* from landlines and 6.90 euro* from mobiles for each call – will be entirely donated to scientific research for diabetes at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, that through the San Raffaele Diabetes Research Institute (DRI) will be able to count on a staff of 50 including doctors, researchers and support personnel, as well as research laboratories with a surface area of around 750 square meters.
“We are very proud of the results achieved during the past few years, but there is still a long way to go as 246 million people in the world suffer from diabetes and we estimate that figure will grow by 380 million by 2025. It is for this reason that San Raffaele has picked up the challenge to re-launch its commitment with the creation of the DRI. It is extremely important that research is given the conditions to progress and in order to do this we need support from everyone from the public and the private sector, but also from individual citizens”, Maurizio Savi, Director of Operations for San Raffaele Research. “It is also crucial that awareness of the disease in every level grows, because there is still far too much misinformation that does not help research” Savi concludes.
Carlo Fornaro, External Relations Director at Telecom Italia, underlines “For a leading technology and innovation company is a necessity and a social duty not only to serve its own customers but also the whole community in which it operates as well as to use the best available technological applications to enhance fund raising possibilities. Following the charity SMS and the charity Click, already used for other significant initiatives, today we introduce - in collaboration with the San Raffaele Foundation - this new way to support research”.
This initiative has been made possible thanks to the support of Telecom Italia, Carrefour Group, Air Mauritius, Beachcombers Hotels, the island of Mauritius and Altec.
Thanks also to Carapelli, TNT Traco Post, Givi, Getfit, Technogym, Yahoo, Ferrovie dello Stato, Latte Milano.
*The cost of the call from fixed telephony is 1.80 euro/min + 36 euro cent connection fee (VAT included).
The maximum cost from mobile operator is 2.24 euro/min + 18 euro cent connection fee (VAT included).