Our history

The GMM’s charter dates back to the 30th November 1984, but its history has began many years earlier. It was the 4th of March 1971, when Alpidio Balbo, a trader from Merano who spent some weeks in Lomé (Togo) to recover after a serious car accident, arrived at Bohicon, a small village in the South of Benin, which was called Dahomey at that time.

He had to hand a letter over to a nun from Trentino who worked in a dispensary. It should have been a quick errand, but during the few hours he remained in Bohicon six children died due to lack of medications that were extremely common in Europe; those six lost lives bound forever Balbo’s life to Benin and to Africa, giving start to a charity work that has brought many positive effects for thousands of people.

The missionary activity of Alpidio Balbo began as the personal effort of a single man and his family, but as the time passed by it has received and taken advantages from the support, the passion and the love for the poorest of the world of many people from Torino, Pesaro, Padua, Bolzano, Genoa, Modena and many others cities, not only in Italy, who offered a real hope to thousands of people.