The MSC Foundation celebrates three years of making a difference

Third anniversary commemorated with video focusing on Foundation’s milestone achievements

The MSC Foundation has briefly taken stock of its work to mark the third anniversary of its official establishment on the 27th of June 2018, inspired by the words of its founder Captain Gianluigi Aponte: “We all have the duty to leave a better world for future generations”. The result is a powerful 3½ minute video <link> panorama of the Foundation’s current milestone achievements in pursuit of its Mission “to restore the critical balance between people and nature within a generation”.

Telling the story in impactful images and music, the video focuses on the Foundation’s main individual initiatives, programmes and partner organisations.

Four powerful initiatives

The section on initiatives begins with a prestigious international workshop in May 2019, at which a panel of 19 marine conservation and climate change scientists and experts announced a pioneering scalable coral reef restoration programme in the waters around Ocean Cay in the Bahamas, aiming to develop a scalable, replicable model based on resilient coral species in 5 years.

The second initiative shown reveals the MSC Foundation’s work as a key partner in the regeneration of Genoa following the Morandi Bridge disaster, organising the double-award-winning Ballata per Genova concert of international stars broadcast live on TV and radio with over 3m viewers in June 2019. The event raised €500,000 for Genoa’s recovery and significantly increased the visibility of the project for regenerating the area under the bridge, attracting new donors and boosting tourism to the city.

Next come video sequences of a different musical event, the high-profile Elbe Habitat Charity Gala in Hamburg’s famous Elbphilharmonie concert hall, which marked the Foundation’s official launch in November 2019. This sell-out classical concert raised €250,000 to renature the River Elbe while also bringing global attention to the importance of preserving its unique habits and natural diversity.

The final initiative highlighted shows the MSC Foundation’s powerful partnership with the 2020 Miami Super Bowl in #SuperCoralPlay, which produced a catchy coral song performed by Super Bowl celebrities, engaged with millions of people and raised funds by selling bracelets made from ghost nets salvaged by scuba divers. Overall, #SuperCoralPlay raised more than USD 100,000 to clean up the ocean, save marine life and help coral survive.

Long-term commitments with 9 programmes in 8 countries

The next section of the video shows the panorama of life-changing programmes with which the Foundation is improving the environment and supporting communities around the world.

The extraordinary impact of the MSC Foundation’s partnership with UNICEF is seen both in a programme that successfully treated more than 3,000 children in Malawi with Severe Acute Malnutrition and a new programme that has won a UNICEF Global Inspire Award for its integrated multi-pronged approach. Making eco-friendly bricks from recycled plastic waste to build 21 classrooms in the Ivory Coast, this programme is cleaning up the environment and improving children’s access to education while simultaneously empowering the women waste collectors involved by paying them a fair regular income.

This is followed by heart-warming images of the Foundation’s marine conservation work around Ocean Cay and through its partnership with Marevivo to teach ‘care for the seas’ in Italian schools.

The focus then returns to healthcare in the Foundation’s programme with Mercy Ships in Africa, which has provided a total of 20,062 free life-changing surgical operations plus capacity-building training for 13,148 medical professionals and community leaders since the beginning of the partnership.

Similar prominence is given to the partnership with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation in Haiti to improve the lives of children and people in need through community-based programmes, including the provision of healthcare through a mobile clinic.

Prompt emergency relief through 20 initiatives in 27 countries worldwide

In a crescendo of powerful images, the video moves towards its conclusion with an impressive roll-call of the MSC Foundation’s impactful interventions to support emergency relief and rebuilding efforts around the world.

Foremost amongst these are a large number of Covid-19 prevention and mitigation actions in some of the most impacted countries around the globe, donating and distributing medical equipment, antigen tests, high-quality medical masks and food to support national health efforts.

Despite this strong global response to the unprecedented pressures of Covid, the MSC Foundation did not lose focus on other areas of urgent need, as shown by the emergency relief and rebuilding initiatives that follow in the video. These range from prompt and comprehensive support for the communities impacted by the Beirut port blast in Lebanon to natural disasters in Central America, Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas and the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in St Vincent & the Grenadines.

Each of these interventions demonstrates the MSC Foundation’s unique ability to bring concrete support swiftly where needed, leveraging the family-owned MSC Group’s ability to respond promptly worldwide and act as a catalyst for resources through the Group’s global reach and networks, attracting donations and moving large quantities of emergency relief and rebuilding materials around the world, assisted by local offices with a strong community presence and history of philanthropy.

Announcing the video, MSC Foundation Executive Director Daniela Picco commented: “We’re delighted to celebrate our 3rd Anniversary with all our donors, supporters and valued partners, MSC employees, Government staff and everyone who has joined with us to make a difference. None of the achievements shown would have been possible without them, working together, learning along the way and gaining in determination to achieve even more”.

You can watch the MSC Foundation 3rd Anniversary video here