ROME, Dec 24 — Frayed teddy bears and broken toy cars resurrect under the magic touch of Guido Pacelli, a modern-day Geppetto who works overtime so that Rome’s poor and sick children wake up to a gift on Christmas morning. Armed with a screwdriver, a microscope and a small welder, “Guido...
Aid worker Guido Pacelli, a.k.a Guido the Toy Fixer, works at Salvamamme in Rome December 19, 2019. — AFP pic
“The best present for me is when these children who have been through so much smile at me,” said Pacelli, a 68-year-old retired aviation technician from Italy’s flagship airline Alitalia. Pacelli remembers a Caterpillar tractor he repaired for a little boy. “He called me every day until I managed to repair it,” said Pacelli, a volunteer for the charity since an early retirement in 2011.
“This toy was even sent by the manufacturer because it was faulty. I’ve mended it and now it will go to a child in a hospital,” said Pacelli.“We distribute more than 20,000 toys a year,” said Maria Grazia Passeri, head of Salvamamme which also hands out food, nappies and clothes to families with very little means. The products come from official organisations, hospitals or local parishes.
Many former beneficiaries who manage to lift themselves out of poverty become volunteers at Salvamamme.
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