Inauguration of the nursery school in Malawi-Matola

There are two stamps in this sui generis stamp issue. It is not historical personalities, mundane events or centenaries to be honoured that are immortalised in the vignettes, but the concrete and visible gestures of international solidarity. As in a sort of story in images, the stamps are intended to bear witness to the cooperation in favour of the populations of developing countries by the San Marino for the Children Onlus association. The site of the operation is Malawi (Africa), one of the poorest countries in the world. The San Marino Onlus, set up in 2007, is working in the African country to develop support works for minors and their families. On 28 February 2013, in Matola, one of the poorest and most densely populated suburbs of Balaka, the “San Marino” nursery school was inaugurated, able to accommodate and provide one meal a day to about 200 children. This will be in addition to the construction of a fountain to give villagers greater access to water and a home for orphans. Well, this commitment of solidarity finds its natural landing place in philately. Thus in the first € 0.10 perforated fragment a sort of protective umbrella, the one designed by Maddalena Medas, a symbolic suggestion that sees in the action of the Titan the solidarity and fraternal materialisation towards the neediest peoples. The colours of the rainbow mark the path and geographical route that links the Republic of San Marino to Malawi, colours also used in the lettering. ‘The first day of school’ is always an event, a remembrance capable of awakening memories and places of yesteryear. The €0.70 stamp that the AASFN wanted to dedicate to this unprecedented ‘debut’ intends to tell a story, a gesture of international solidarity capable of producing a path of cultural growth, an emblematic and virtuous educational process. In the cartoon, elaborated by Labadox, a snapshot taken on 28 February 2013 during the inauguration of the “San Marino” nursery school in Matola (Malawi). In the frame, simple and joyful, the sense of the whole operation: the solidarity of the San Marino people who, through the San Marino for the Children Onlus association (www.sanmarinoforthechildren.org), made possible the construction of a school and a refectory that will be used by more than two hundred African children. A rainbow of colours closes the stamp on the left, projecting the fervid energy of solidarity into the clear field of the sky. The Matola venture represents the first and most important project of the San Marino for the Children ONLUS Association in the field of international solidarity in favour of developing countries. 'The first day of school' is never forgotten, one is wont to repeat with poetic reminiscence and realistic conviction. The first school built by the San Marino for the Children ONLUS Association in Malawi will remain engraved between the pages of the historical book of peoples.