Press Release

Rome, 10 June 2022 – A fully-equipped Summer Camp is being launched in Rome for Ukrainian mothers and children who have sought refuge in the Italian capital. From next Monday, 13 June, until Friday, 2 September, Villa Fassini, located in the Tiburtina area of the city, will host families who have come to Rome to flee the war in Ukraine. The camp will organise games and sporting activities for children free of charge. The Summer Camp is an initiative devised by Atlantia’s employees, who under a special agreement can take 10 days leave on full pay to carry out voluntary work, and is being run in partnership with a number of NGOs and charities, such as Sport Senza Frontiere – which is responsible for running the camp – Caritas, the Community of Sant’ Egidio and Save The Children. The project, called “Atlantia4Ukraine”, is being run thanks to active collaboration from a number of government institutions, above all Rome City Council, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Civil Protection Department and the Ukrainian Embassy in Italy.
The summer camp will open next Monday and will be open every working day from 9 in the morning to 5.30 in the evening, organising entertainment, sports and games for children aged from 4 to 14. The camp will provide recreational and sporting activities, yoga, Italian language courses and counselling services. It will also be open to mothers who will be able to play sports and have access to specific assistance and support. In addition to offering 24,000m2 of green space, the Villa Fassini centre made available by Atlantia has a fully-equipped multimedia classroom and free access to broadband.
Approximately 160 people will be able to use the services offered by the Summer Camp each day: in this way, by rotating participants on a weekly basis, it will be able to host around 2,000 women and children. The activities have been planned on the basis of the main needs expressed by Ukrainian refugees in Rome, who were consulted during an open day held on 13 May this year. 
People from Atlantia and representatives from the NGOs and the government agencies involved met and talked to approximately 500 Ukrainian refugees with the aim of finding out which services were most needed.The main characteristics of the Summer Camp were presented at a meeting with over 200 Ukrainian refugees held in the Protomoteca room in the Capitol in Rome. The event was attended by the Mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, the Chairman of Atlantia, Giampiero Massolo, the Head of the Civil Protection Department, Fabrizio Curcio, the Ukrainian Ambassador to Italy, Yaroslav Melnik, Rome City Council’s Director of Social and Health Services, Barbara Funari, the Chairman of Sport Senza Frontiere, Alessandro Tappa, and representatives from the other NGOs involved.