No gifts, no games or personal wishes. For his 12th birthday, Orlando chose a different path: transforming his party into a fundraiser for the Neonatology of the San Giuseppe hospital in Empoli. The initiative was born in December, when the young man and his family decided to give up traditional gifts to support the most fragile newborns.
With the involvement of his companions invited to the party, he collected what was needed to purchase two special devices called “care” gloves. The project took shape thanks to family teamwork, but also to the decisive contribution of the grandmother, who worked for years in the same department and helped direct the donation towards a concrete need.
“Care” gloves and their role in supporting newborns
The donation took shape in recent days, when Orlando was welcomed into the hospital together with his mother, little sister and grandmother by the health management and Professor Roberto Bernardini, director of Paediatrics and Neonatology. The devices, arrived from the United States, are designed to offer newborns a sensation of containment and simulated human contact.
They absorb the parents’ smell and retain heat, helping to calm the little ones while they rest. Their operation is inspired by kangaroo care, the practice of skin-to-skin contact between parent and newborn. According to Professor Bernardini, these tools are particularly useful in high-intensity departments, where the continuous presence of parents is not always possible and where maintaining a sensory bond can have positive effects on the well-being of the newborn.
Concrete help that also becomes a message
The director of the unit, Francesca Bellini, underlined how the donation has a double value: on the one hand the material support for the department, on the other the educational significance of the gesture. Orlando has demonstrated that even at 12 years of age it is possible to contribute in a real way to improving hospital care by involving friends and family in an active solidarity project. An initiative that was born from a birthday party and reaches the incubators, where small tools can make the difference in the growth path of the most vulnerable newborns.
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