It offers empathetic listening and concrete support to patients and their families in over 220 healthcare facilities in Italy and now also at the IRCCS Centro Neurolesi Bonino Pulejo in Messina. The Association of Hospital Volunteers (AVO) was established in recent days at the administrative headquarters of the Institute on the initiative of the administrative director Maria Felicita Crupi and also strongly supported by the general director Maurizio Lanza. «It is with great joy and profound pride that we announce the establishment of Avo at the prestigious IRCCS Bonino Pulejo, which represents our 16th branch in Sicily – states the president of AVO Sicilia Concetta Moscatt -; being AVO VOLUNTEERS means being close to every fragility.”
What is Avo
«The AVO, which recently celebrated its first 50 years of history at a national level – underlines the administrative director Crupi -, is the most noble and concrete expression of civil commitment and we are pleased to welcome it into our hospitals to support our particularly fragile patients and their families». «The Avo represents a concrete initiative against social indifference which we are proud to join», states general director Lanza. The birth of the Messina section of Avo enriches the social fabric of the area. «The AVO – declares the regional vice-president Silvia Gasbarro – is based on the indispensable principles that embody the true spirit of volunteering; acts as an additional resource, with discretion and respect, without ever replacing healthcare personnel, carrying out that “acting on tiptoe” that has always distinguished the Association. In a place of treatment and rehabilitation – he concludes -, the presence of volunteers is crucial to alleviate the emotional burden and loneliness that often accompany the disease”.
Anyone who wants to dedicate their time to others who are suffering, anyone who wants to be a helping hand and a comforting smile, is invited to join and become an AVO MESSINA VOLUNTEER by sending an email to (email protected).