Young Health Programme Italy

To improve the overall hospital experience for children in Italy through sports and wellbeing activities.

In Italy, the Young Health Programme works with two key organizations, Associazione Gaslini Onlus (Gaslini) and ABIO Foundation Onlus (ABIO), to improve the hospital experience for children. Projects range from assisting rehabilitation programs to interactive books that educate children about hospitals.

The Gaslini develops projects to assist paediatric patients and their families during their hospital stay, including assistance services and technological improvements to the hospital. Gaslini will establish a special area of the hospital dedicated to the rehabilitation of children through sport, thanks to funding from the AstraZeneca Young Health Programme. The project will enable children with various levels of motor cognitive, sensory, and communicative disabilities to develop fundamental skills such as coordination and motor planning. This method assists children in improving their concentration, relationship with themselves, determination, tenacity, and self-esteem.

ABIO is a national organization that works with over 5,000 volunteers in over 200 paediatric wards that are coordinated by the Foundation. The organization's mission is to provide hospitality support to children, adolescents, and families who are hospitalized for an extended period of time. The Young Health Programme provides funding to the 59 regional ABIO associations for projects such as welcome packs for children, interactive books to help children become acquainted with the hospital, and playrooms within paediatric wards.

In September 2022, AstraZeneca collaborated with Rise Against Hunger Italia, a non-profit organization working to end world hunger in accordance with the United Nations Sustainable Goal #2 'Zero Hunger,' in the largest single event ever organized in Europe.

All AstraZeneca Italy employees worked together to pack 216,000 rations, which will provide 1,000 children with hot meals for a year in Sub-Saharan Africa, where food scarcity remains a major issue. These meals will be served in schools, allowing these 1,000 children to continue their education while also having enough food to last the entire school year.

We invited various associations to participate in our corporate event in September 2022, through the CSV, Volunteer Service Centres, whose goal is to work with the local community to make it more supportive, welcoming, and attentive to the common good, through the support and cultural development of volunteering.