The Italian association Cuore Amico Fraternità ETS, which has been supporting missionary activity around the world since 1980, in Brescia, Italy, on Oct. 19, 2024, awarded a religious, a nun and a laywoman, who every day strive to exalt the dignity of every human being in the countries to which Christ’s call has led them. Each year, the awardees receive a total of 150,000 euros to support their work.
This year they stood out in particular for evangelization and the human and social promotion of minors in need:
Sister Elvira Tutolo, originally from Termoli, a missionary of the Sisters of Charity of St. Jeanne Antide Thouret, in the Central African Republic since 2001. Hers is an ongoing battle to rescue girls, children and young people from the violence of a life on the streets and the horror of the armed gangs that infest the country;
Father Giovanni Gentilin, originally from Arzignano (Vicenza), a Canossian missionary who has been present since 1989 in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, where, among the shacks and dilapidated stilts of the Tondo neighborhood, he works to support girls and children, girls and boys, in their studies;
Marilena Valvano, originally from Salò (Brescia), has been in Venezuela since 1993. A nurse and naturopath, she helps campesinos (farmers) by teaching nursing and land cultivation using modern methods. To give new hope and a future to the girls and children of the Pozo Verde area, she created a music school that is now nationally recognized.
The Cuore Amico Prize, now in its 34th year, is awarded annually in October, on the Saturday before World Mission Day, by the Cuore Amico Fraternity ETS Association. It was established in 1991 by Fr. Mario Pasini, a priest from Brescia, to draw attention to missionary activity, a great work of the Church to promote the world’s poor.
Cuore Amico’s mission is to support missionaries in their activities and projects in Africa, South America, Asia and Europe. The initiatives financed are: literacy schools, construction of hospitals, churches and chapels in villages, wells, agricultural and labor cooperatives, support for the training of seminarians and novices, taking care of orphaned and street children, people affected by natural disasters.
