Sergio Scapagnini, the Italian philanthropist who is also an author and film producer, was honoured in Kolkata with the international 'Gold Mercury Award' for humanitarian commitment, in a ceremony organised with the contribution of the Italian Consulate General.
The award, which recognises the Neapolitan entrepreneur's 40 years of commitment to street children with his association AMASempre, followed a few hours after the presentation at the Kolkata International Film Festival of the first Italian-Indian co-production, the film 'Parikrama', based on Scapagnini's book 'La storia di Lala'. The film, by director Goutam Ghose, (the only Indian to have received the 'Vittorio De Sica' award for lifetime achievement), had been presented at the Giffoni Festival, and is the first Indo-Italian co-production to be created under the intergovernmental agreement between Italy and India, in which the Ministry of Culture, the Campania Region, the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of Tourism of Madhya Pradesh are partners.
As the Consul General of Italy Riccardo Dalla Costa recalls, Scapagnini, whom everyone in Calcutta knows by the nickname 'kaka' ('uncle' in Bengali), has collaborated with icons of humanitarian commitment, from Sister Baptista of Indore to Mother Teresa, from the Dalai Lama to the Banker of the Poor, now leader of Bangladesh, Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunys.
"Through his efforts," the consul points out, "he left an indelible mark on the lives of thousands, street children, lepers, people with HIV, and rebuilt entire fishing villages in Tamil Nadu after the 2004 tsunami. His efforts remind each of us of the profound responsibility we have for safeguarding the hope and dignity of the most vulnerable'.
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