We are Claudia Ravaldi and Alfredo Vannacci, and we are the founders of the CiaoLapo Onlus Association.
This is the original presentation by CiaoLapo written on March 30th 2006.
“We work as doctors and collaborate with the University of Florence: we deal with psychotherapy and psychiatry (Claudia), pharmacovigilance and complementary medicine (Alfredo).
CiaoLapo was born with the aim of filling a double void into which we fell on March 13, 2006, when we lost our second child, Lapo, at the end of the 38th week of pregnancy.
The first, great emptiness, is the one left by an expected, perceived and experienced child, who passes away even before being embraced.
The second, bleak void, the scientific and social one , which too often accompanies parents who lose a child in the perinatal period: we parents without a child fall into a parallel dimension, and we seem to be rehabilitated (subject to our mental health) only after the birth of an additional child. The pressure of this void, so strident when compared to the need for time and space to live and mourn, can considerably worsen the evolution of things, and can contribute to the development of important mental illnesses (complicated mourning).
CiaoLapo was born then to fill those two gaps , and every day tries to earn a small piece to achieve its numerous objectives (see the Statute ).
From 11 April 2006, step by step ….
- we join the threads of a serious and competent national network of specialist centers in which, alongside a correct medical diagnosis and adequate prevention in high-risk pregnancies, adequate protocols of psychological support for bereavement are implemented for the affected parents and family members;
- we are spreading the culture of mourning during pregnancy and after birth among maternal and child health professionals , in order to make them more ready to face psychological emergency situations;
- we work in research to investigate the outcome of perinatal bereavement in the various psychological and social areas, in order to outline an intervention profile suited to Italian cultural needs;
- we involve operators and citizens in informative events that we organize in October, the international month of awareness on the death of the child during pregnancy or after childbirth ;
- through the training of volunteer staff we are opening self-help groups with the aim of concretely bringing support to parents in their home territory;
- we provide a type of personalized support to the different needs of bereaved parents: reading brochures and books, self-help forums and chats, groups facilitated by trained staff, psychotherapeutic support.
CiaoLapo is the gift that our son left us in his small and precious life. His passage has changed the way we perceive ourselves as people and has refined not only our sensitivity, but also clearly and sharply outlined the priority of some things over others.
Support and accompaniment to the path of mourning, free access to medical, scientific, psychological and biographical information on perinatal mourning, providing concrete and validated tools for mourning, are among the primary purposes of the association.
Over time, thanks to the attendance of hundreds of bereaved parents from any country in the world, we have also begun to offer another point of view (not avoidant, not repressive) of Death and the suffering of “special” parents, which becomes a moment of reflection and passage, towards a more mature and “creative” pain.
The CiaoLapo association is a non-profit organization, registered in the Unica Registry of Onlus, (Revenue Agency, Regional Directorate of Tuscany, IPS070216004) has no profit and its activity is only possible thanks to membership fees and voluntary donations . Anyone who wants can also allocate the 5 x 1000 of their tax return to CiaoLapo.
For contacts, clarifications or for more information or if you feel you need CiaoLapo’s help for you or a family member, please send an email to info@ciaolapo.it
If you want to help us and become a member click here for more information.
If you want to help us with a donation, please use the appropriate form to offer online through the secure Paypal circuit, or make a payment to the association’s current account that you find at the bottom of the site and in the donations area. “
How far have we come since March 30th 2006?
You can read the developments of CiaoLapo in these articles, here and here .
Read how many people have trained with us and are part of our team here .
Read the permanent projects that we have managed to carry out, here and here .
Read the studies that we have promoted for the first time also in Italy, in particular those of the Lancet and those on perinatal bereavement .
Heartfelt thanks to those who have offered us their contribution.
“Every great journey begins with a single step”
