(source) Article taken from

http://www.eoi.es/blogs/juanramonjimenez/marcello-girone-an-unseenhero/

This past weekend I was lucky enough to have participated in the TEDx Cibeles event as a speaker and I have to say it was one of the best experiences of my life, not only for all the preparation I had spent, but also because the great help I’ve had from lots of people, many of them I did not know them a month before!, but mainly by the amount of friends I have made.

And about this latter I want to talk, in the previous year’s TEDx Cibeles  I defined a tweet as “An event 3LL, my stomach, my head and my saddlebag were FULL of delicacies, books and ideas respectively,” for this year should be added the FRIENDSHIP.

I always said that there are times that in one afternoon you know someone much more, than the people that you have around every day for several years, confirming the importance of “physical environment” in our lives.

And I am referring to Marcello Girone or should I say Don Marcello, understood as “Don” as they call in Andalusia to the friends of truth, whose way of being amazed me from the start. Let me tell you anecdotes of this weekend:

- During the event TEDxCibeles unlike other speakers, he was sitting in different parts of the auditorium with the idea of feeling in some way the audience, before his talk was easy, but after was difficult.

- At lunches and dinners we shared together, he could not let any food on dishes, if you had finished your food and your dish was not empty, he asked for it just to finish the whole food on it (for those who don’t understand what I mean with this gesture, click on the link of his name and you will understand)

- A so close person that from one day to another he stops shaking hands and begin giving you hugs

- He confessed and argued to me the ignorance of people about NGOs, where there is a lot of money that does not go directly to those in need. Some part of your pay goes for the expenses a company’s own, their advertising campaigns, as well as the salary of the volunteers, etc … in the case of the Marcello organization all the money goes directly to people in need, for instance the Civil Engineers who went to help to make the dam, the trip was paid for them and they did not receive any salary, all they had was a bed to sleep in the hospital and food. Marcello pay his trips with his own money, in fact the account where you can transfer to support your project is totally transparent and everyone can see it. The Marcello’s project, HELP ZIMBABWE is totally manage for him, he has volunteers in Zimbabwe, but he is the heart, lungs, brain, limbs …that makes it work.

But let me tell you some more details about Marcello:

- The Marcello’s mobile phone looks like a toy, it is grey very small with antenna outside and with a small monochrome display, he did not make any phone call with the knowledge of the cost of roaming.

- He is abstemious, in fact I still laugh when I remember him saying that he is a little bit under the influence with a 0% alcohol beer.

- I was not registered at the hotel, but I had breakfast with him at the hotel on Sunday because he had a double room and he told me the story that once he had also a double room in a hotel he brought a street beggar to have lunch with him.

- He asked me as he could reach the airport from the hotel by subway, which I told him not to worry that I would take him, Can you believe, that I almost had to put him chloroform to take him?.

- Finally I am going to tell you only the beginning of the talk we had at breakfast, when I asked that it should be very hard to change from a third world country like Zimbabwe to Europe, he told me that I was right  and he begun to tell me the situation where some children were living (while he was telling me this, his eyes were full of tears..) and the month that he had been in Zimbabwe was terrible, he arrived really tired to TEDx, but the atmosphere around the event and the friendship of all the people had allowed him to get new energy.

I could not see his talk, because it was right after mine, but I know he did not ask for donations, among other things because it is forbidden in TED events. The reason why I am telling you all this, it’s in order that for all of you that went to the event you may know him a little more and for the ones who didn’t go to the event, you can start to know him (next week I get video of his talk and I will attach a link for you to see it ), and then as far as possible you could help him: donating money to the project account or changing the website that it is really a disaster (it is like his phone confirming once again that bears the austerity in everything he does) or retweeting this post so that more people know about it, etc. .. There are plenty of ways you can help.

On the website you can make donations to the account:

ASI ONG/ONLUS

IBAN:IT73I0615513005000000016000

Swif code: CFERIT2F

Or you can make donations through PayPal, where you put as a beneficiary to an email account: Questo indirizzo e-mail è protetto dallo spam bot. Abilita Javascript per vederlo.

There is also a way to participate by sponsoring a child.

Since a few months ago, I say that we need to do a “click” about how we are going to live these times, people like Marcello has done not one “click”, but “n-clicks”

Molte grazie Marcello!!!!!

PS: I highlight some words about an email received from Marcello:

”Help me not to ask for financial aid, although it is necessary, but to contribute in a more challenging way. The contribution we can make is in our daily work, taking a practical attitude about the suffering, respect to resources and reducing consumption, so that it begins to make a personal meaning of “sharing the goods” and this can influence changing the wishes of future generations who are observing us. Offering more freedom / happiness and also to lay the foundations for a better world. “