In the classroom dedicated to cognitive activities, Samuel18 years old from Grottammare (in the province of Ascoli Piceno), visually impaired, is working on the computer, with very large black characters to make it easier to see. «Samuele is undergoing a short-term treatment, for three weeks, at our Diagnostic Center, where we welcome all users who have reached the age of six: after early treatments – ranging from zero to six years -, care continues for them here in the Osimo Center or in the local offices where the users reside”.
The doctor explains Catia Sartinidirector of the Diagnostic Center, short-term treatments and school sector of the Lega del Filo d’Oro Foundation, center of excellence and point of reference in Italy for the assistance, education and rehabilitation of people with deafblindness and multiple psychosensory disabilities, born in 1964 on the hills of Osimo, in the province of Ancona. «I’m working on emotions through the lyrics of Vasco Rossi’s songs», explains Samuele who, as a Formula One enthusiast, proudly shows off his Mercedes t-shirt. «It would be very nice to meet Kimi Antonelli», he confesses.
In one of the four gyms of the National Center of the Lega del Filo d’Oro in Osimo, Raffaella, one of the therapists, accompanies, holding his hand, one of the adult users on a motor path through a series of platforms, which is repeated several times. “Users have visual or hearing impairments or both together: they can be guided by hand or by voice,” explains the doctor. Cecilia Maria Vigohealth director of the Osimo Centre. Physical activities continue with hydrotherapy in the two swimming pools, created within the new national centre.
Doctor Nicoletta Marconi with Luigi in the basket-making laboratory.
In the teaching kitchen, some boys and girls, sitting around a table, work with their teachers to create biscuits with their own hands. In the basket making workshop Louisdeafblind, is intent on weaving rattan wicker to create a basket with patience, skill and great precision. When he senses the doctor’s presence Nicoletta Marconidirector of the Adult Sector, Day Center and Territorial Service of the Lega del Filo d’Oro, Luigi interrupts work and jokes with her. Communication between them, explains Dr. Marconi, takes place through the Malossi language, a tactile communication system that is based on the letters of the alphabet and transforms the hand of the person receiving the message into a sort of keyboard, whereby each letter is typed on the left hand.
In the center square, a Foundation van is ready to take a group of guests to spend a day on the beach. Holidays and stays at the seaside or in the mountains are some of the unmissable activities, and much loved, of the Lega del Filo d’Oro.
The new national center of the organization in Osimo was inaugurated in March 2023 in the presence of the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella. The structure, made up of two lots on a surface area of 56 thousand m2, is bright, perfectly accessible, with attention to the smallest details, immersed in a large green space, designed according to anti-seismic criteria and full environmental sustainability, as explained by the president of the Lega del Filo d’Oro Rossano Bartoli.
The president of the Lega del Filo d’Oro Rossano Bartoli with the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella at the inauguration of the new national centre.
The first lot, inaugurated in 2017, includes the diagnostic centre, educational-rehabilitative and health services, intensive treatments and institutional activities. The second lot houses the residences consisting of 14 apartments for four users each and the guest quarters for family members, the swimming pools and gyms, the building with the kitchen, the canteen and the laundry, the museum and the educational center.
The educational-rehabilitative and health services represent the heart of the National Centre’s activities: for each user, child, teenager or adult, a personalized rehabilitation path is outlined, followed and verified in a constant relationship with the families.
At the Lega del Filo d’Oro each user is a person, with his value, his uniqueness and his dignity, with his complex problems but also his residual potential, which must be welcomed, understood, valorised, in a rehabilitation process followed by an interdisciplinary team that aims to achieve the greatest possible degree of autonomy on the part of the person. Each family is accompanied, assisted also through periodic psychological consultancy, never left alone in daily difficulties, helped to orient themselves in the management of their child at home, to “read” his expressive forms, to establish a communicative relationship with those who cannot see, hear, speak.
Hydrotherapy in one of the swimming pools of the National Centre.
For the many families who arrive at the Osimo Center from other cities and regions, being welcomed in the building used as a guesthouse is essential to being able to stay close to their children during their short-term treatments or to constantly visit their adult children who have been welcomed into full-time guest residences, a concrete response from the Filo d’Oro league to “after us”, when families, at a certain point in life, can no longer take care of a child with a serious disability.
June 27th is International Deafblindness Day. In Italy there are over 360 thousand people who are deafblind and have multiple psychosensory disabilities, 0.7% of the population. The recent National Conference of deafblind people asks Italian society for a paradigm shift: to look at people with deafblindness not as recipients of assistance but as citizens who can make a concrete active contribution to society.
“Together beyond darkness and silence” is the motto of the Foundation which for over 60 years has created a precious thread of union between deafblind people and the outside world. In recent decades the Lega del Filo d’Oro has grown and has progressively expanded its services, extending them throughout the national territory. In addition to the national center in Osimo, centers have been created in Lesmo (Monza and Brianza), Modena, Molfetta (Bari), Termini Imerese (Palermo) and a network of numerous local offices, to provide continuity of assistance and rehabilitation, once they return home, to users and their families who arrive at the Osimo diagnostic center from other cities and regions.
In 2025 the Foundation followed 1405 people: the highest number ever recorded in the organisation’s history. Ten years ago there were 806, 74% less. The territorial presence has expanded to 12 regions (which will soon become 13). The organization has more than 470 thousand active donors at a national level. Over the last ten years, the network of volunteers has also grown, now numbering over 800. A precious, irreplaceable resource for the Lega del Filo d’Oro, as he testifies Dayana Galassi47 years, of which almost thirty were spent as a volunteer, with alternating phases, without ever severing the link with the Foundation which for her is now like a big family. «I started at 18, immediately after graduating from high school. I was a volunteer on Sundays in a community-accommodation, with people with sensory disabilities. Then I also started with summer stays. The Lega del Filo d’Oro accompanied me in my growth, For me, the volunteering experience was also very useful for my work as a teacher. Volunteers receive a lot of training. Today my commitment continues, even if it is more occasional: I could never move away from the Foundation.”
«The Lega del Filo d’Oro has continued to grow. But we are aware that there is still a long way to go”, comments President Bartoli. «Even in the coming years we will continue to move along the path traced, strengthening our presence in the territories, integrating skills and intervention models and keeping the life paths and abilities of each person at the center.”
