A director of Rotary International from the Philippines, Sabino “Benny” Santos, loved to recall how, when it came to polio immunization in his country “Even before we received the first shipment of oral polio vaccine purchased with money authorized by the Rotary International board, we received 500,000 doses in a shipment as a gift from Italian schoolchildren to the schoolchildren of the Philippines.
This came through the efforts of Past District Governor Sergio Mulitsch and the newly chartered Rotary Club of Treviglio e della Pianura Bergamasca.
The two Italians, together with a few other willing members, founded an NGO called “Nuovi spazi al servire”, in order to achieve Rotarian objectives and humanitarian missions.
Over the next few years, Ravaglia worked with dedication and enthusiasm to gain recognition from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the NGO “Nuovi spazi al servire”.
“Nuovi spazi al servire” has always been supported by Rotarian volunteers and, in addition to raising funds for the PolioPlus project, it has also been involved, under Ravaglia’s guidance, in several initiatives to help some of the world’s poorest countries, from Brazil to the Ivory Coast, from Argentina to Zambia.