Messina, April 17, 2026 – The new Educational Space, an educational area promoted by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation and dedicated to hospitalized children and young people, was inaugurated today within the “Gaetano Martino” University Hospital in Messina. The environment is designed to welcome, educate, and stimulate creativity, where the care pathway integrates with the educational one, offering opportunities for personal growth even during a hospital stay.
The initiative is part of the ABF Edu Care program, through which the Foundation develops integrated systems of care and education in pediatric hospitals, promoting methodological, educational, and teaching innovation. The program was created with the aim of ensuring educational continuity for young patients and fostering the development of transversal skills through the languages of art, music, and digital media.
The Messina Hospital is already part of the national AOPI Pediatric Hospitals network where the ABF Edu Care project is active. The initiative involves 14 pediatric hospitals across Italy, including Genova, Ancona, Trieste, Napoli, Firenze, and Padova, promoting integrated systems of care and training.
In this context, three Atelieristes—professionals specialized in the languages of art, music, and digital media—work daily in the hospital, with a continuous presence integrated into the everyday life of the ward. Unlike in other facilities, where their involvement is more modular or supportive of existing educational services, in Messina their presence is more stable and reinforced, similar to that of a regular teacher, addressing the absence of an in-house Hospital School.
With the Educational Space, this pathway is further strengthened through a dedicated, welcoming, and flexible environment designed to meet the needs of hospitalized children and young people.
Careful spatial design is an integral part of the Foundation’s educational approach: selected materials, harmonious colors, and modular furnishings have been chosen to create a beautiful, welcoming, and functional environment, in line with the ABF vision, which recognizes the value of space as an educational element capable of supporting well-being, creativity, and relationships.
The environment hosts workshop activities in Art, Music, and Digital fields, offering young patients opportunities for both individual and small-group expression. Alongside the workshops, there is an area dedicated to meeting with families, designed to encourage listening and sharing in an intimate and comfortable setting. The space also integrates narrative elements that reflect the Foundation’s educational identity: books, materials, and the children’s creations build a living narrative of experiences. In this context, the ABF TeachBus— the digital library already donated to the hospital—finds its place, together with organizational areas dedicated to the care of materials, essential for ensuring continuity and quality in activities.
“With the Educational Space, we strengthen the Foundation’s presence in Messina, offering children and young people a place that puts their ability to express themselves, learn, and imagine at the center, even during a delicate moment in their lives. It is a space designed to integrate care and education, giving young patients the opportunity to continue growing, discovering, and feeling part of a community even in hospital.” — Francesca Favi, Head of ABF Education & Edu Care Program.
“We are very pleased,” said the Administrative Director of AOU G. Martino, Dr. Elvira Amata, “to continue this project with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation (ABF); it is a source of pride for us that our hospital is among the few in southern Italy able to count on such a presence. This represents both an honor and a responsibility, because we are aware that excellence must be pursued. This project strongly evokes beauty—the beauty of art, of color, of a fairy tale read aloud. In a hospital, all of this translates into the beauty of life and the importance of finding ways to recognize beauty even in difficult situations: with your contribution, you have certainly helped make our children’s stay in hospital lighter, giving meaning to every moment experienced.”
