About Us

The Foundation was established in honour of the family of the founder of the AKNO Group, an international company that has always made solidarity a primary objective.

SENECA, Letters to Lucilius, 1st century AD:

“We must do everything to show the greatest gratitude. This is our good, in the same way that justice is not about others, as is commonly believed: much of it falls on oneself. Everyone, when he does good to another, does it to himself.

And I do not say this because he who has been helped wants to help, he who has been defended wants to protect, and because the good example falls back on the person who gave it, (just as bad examples fall back on the perpetrators, and if one has taught by his actions that one can be offended, he does not find commiseration when he is in turn offended); but I say this because every virtue finds its reward in itself. One does not exercise it in view of a reward: the gain of a virtuous action consists in having performed it.

I show gratitude not because another spurred on by my preceding example helps me more willingly, but for doing a most sweet and beautiful deed; I am grateful not because it suits me, but because it pleases me. To make you realise that this is so, know that if I can show my gratitude only by appearing ungrateful, if I can only return a favour under the guise of an offence, with the utmost tranquillity I will fulfil this just purpose even at the price of honour. No one, in my opinion, holds virtue in higher regard, no one is more devoted to it than he who ruins his reputation as an honest man in order not to betray his conscience.

Therefore, as I have already said, showing gratitude is a greater good for you than for your neighbour; for him it is a common, everyday fact to get back what he has given, for you an important fact, generated by a state of mind of intense happiness, to have shown gratitude. If wickedness makes one unhappy and virtue makes one happy, and being grateful is a virtue, you have given an ordinary thing and gained one of inestimable value, the consciousness of gratitude, which only arises in an extraordinary and fortunate soul.”

MISSION

‘Helping others is the best way to help yourself’ is the philosophy on which the Foundation is based. Doing good for others leads us to see life from a different point of view; doing good for those who cannot be well also helps us to think differently.

The foundation was set up to support national and international projects with civic, solidarity and socially useful purposes by intervening in all situations of vulnerability, fragility and non-self-sufficiency of individuals and communities, whether they arise from family, cultural, health or age-related, social, educational, employment, energy and environmental conditions.

We support various projects in different areas always with the aim of helping to improve the lives of others.

The Foundation, therefore, supports, identifies and conducts, directly or indirectly, all those actions aimed at preventing and addressing the described difficulties, in a project that includes inclusion, non-discrimination and sustainability with a special focus on children, who must have the right to live their childhood and the opportunity to grow and study peacefully. Children are the future, the hope, the building blocks to create a better world, let’s give them the tools to do it!

 

VISION

We believe that every human being has first and foremost the right to live a life in dignity and health.

This is precisely why we mainly fund humanitarian projects related to education, health and research.

Dreaming of a meritocratic way, we also try to support those who want to study by promoting cultural activities and scholarships for the deserving.