The Peter Pan Association (Onlus) will be celebrating its 18th birthday with a small ceremony on November 16 in Rome at 6:30pm in front of Peter Pan's House on 16 San Francesco di Sales Street in the presence of the families that it is currently hosting, of the staff of the friend's association, of Volunteers. Before the cake, offered by Bizzarie di Pane and of the toast, offered by Casale del Giglio, there will be music  with Max Maglione.

Besides Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th, the association has planned a special extraordinary opening to the public who, by appointment, will be able to visit the welcome site “La Grande Casa di Peter Pan”, recently completed, in order to get to know Peter Pan up close for the first time and in order also to give those who have donated the opportunity to "see with their own eyes" how the organization has used the donated funds. In order to reserve, please call 06.684012.

The story of Peter Pan onlus: What a long journey in Peter Pan's shoes from that far away November 16, 1994, when in Rome a very small group of parents and realtives of children sick with cancer started off to found the Peter Pan Association onlus. A light name for a difficult but essential and urgent mission: to give a home to those who had to leave their own to take care of a sick child and who were
forced to sleep in the car for the duration of the treatments. In the Statute one can in fact read that Peter Pan "plans to realize support intervention in favor of children sick with cancer and of their relatives in particular to support the non resident families in the treatment location creating for them support structures which will ease the way and welcome them during the therapy period", to aid them, the provide a contrast to their sense of loss and solitude that are aninevitable corollary to this illness and to provide them with serenity and human warmth. "Not being able to add days to life, Peter Pan adds life to days" In this way, the association summarizes the principles stated in their Statute.

Today Peter Pan in spite of the bureaucracy, the promises of help that were not forthcoming on the part of Institutions, in spite of the crisis, has an active welcome site, the name is “La Grande Casa di Peter Pan”, that consists of three buildings at a radius of 50 meters from the heart of Rome, the biggest in Europe, capable of hosting without cost and at the same time 33 family nuclei for a total of 120 people per day. The first welcoming home was born in 2000, the second in 2004, in 2007 the Stellina, destined to host for brief periods families that return  for frequent check ups, and in 2011 the last structure was completed, not without having to overcome heavy difficulties both logistical and economic.

The welcome site “La Grande Casa di Peter Pan” provide a concrete solution to the increasing social emergency: the health commute, a phenomenon that assumes vast proportions as time goes on. Every year, hundreds of families, are forced to leave their own homes to move to Rome where they hope to find a cure for their children in the excellent hospitals of the capital. The disintegration of family bonds that follows is a source of often not minor psychological problems for the family members. Thanks to the existence of the Peter Pan Welcome Homes, the parents can find family intimacy, and the children after the morning treatments in the hospital, live in an environment that, because of the values it transmits, becomes useful to the ends of the therapy itself. Besides the 600 families welcomed until today, whether italian or coming from many other countries, for as long as necessary -  the average stay of a family nucleus is about 6 months. About 200 the Volunteers, associates of the organization, who, appropriately trained, with their daily presence in the homes and in rounds, guarantee the parents and the children all the necessary support, 24 hours a day every day of the year.

And now funds areneeded to cover the expenses of administration: the association does not receive public funds, it lives thanks to the donations by private parties and by companies.

In order to help Peter Pan  to actively maintain its welcome site from the 11th to the 30th of November, thanks to the cooperation of telephone operators, we can donate 2 Euro, either by landline or by mobile phone, by telephoning from the landline or by sending ans sms to the number 45503.

The sums that will be gathered will be used to face the current expenses: rentals, bills, maintenance. The administration costs become more onerous each day, including the upkeep of the rent with the market demands.