The 2025 We Walked Together

There is a moment, at the beginning of every year, when we pause. Not to take stock in the strict sense of the word – that’s something we do with Thomas, our accountant, in a much more formal way. We pause to look back and try to see not the numbers, but the faces. Not the projects completed, but the seeds planted. Not what we did, but what has changed.

2025 was a year of transitions. For the Foundation – which, in these very months, is officially becoming Casa Costa Foundation ETS, changing its skin but not its soul – as for many organizations and many people who in this time are questioning the deeper meaning of their actions. A year in which we have tried to understand together what it really means to speak of solidarity in a world that is changing so rapidly.

The stories we carry with us

When I look at the spreadsheet that helps us track fund transfers – a dry tool made of columns and numbers – I try to imagine what lies behind each line. And behind every line there is always a story of dignity, possibility, and future.

In Afghanistan, where every day women and girls struggle simply to exist, we continued to support the Secret Schools: fifty underground classrooms where studying, dreaming, and resisting continue despite the brutal bans imposed by the Taliban regime. Then there is the saffron of the Giallo Fiducia project: not just a precious spice, but a way for twelve women to earn a living with their own hands, to depend on no one. When the earthquake struck at the end of August, we were able to quickly send funds for medical care and medicines, especially for those – women and children – who have no access to healthcare. And all of this, let me say it clearly, would not have been possible without the people working on the ground, who risk their lives every single day (much as we are, sadly, seeing happen in Iran even in these very hours).

In Uganda, where we have been working for years with Insieme si può, we saw projects take shape that taste of soil and honest work. In Nakiloro, two classrooms, a block of latrines, and a rainwater harvesting system were built. Read like this, it may sound like little, right? But it means that 655 students and 4 teachers now have a dignified place to learn. It means hygiene education, agroforestry, a school garden and orchard. It means autonomy, future, roots. We saw it with our own eyes during our trip in October 2024 – and I still remember the tears in our eyes and the firm determination to try to change something. And we did, also thanks to the invaluable support of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano.

Then there was Casa Famiglia Effatà, for which we raised funds thanks to the exhibition “Effatà – The Earth Is Alive” and the generosity of many friends among you: not only the construction itself, but also wardrobes, bed linen, desks. The details that turn four walls into a real home for thirty children.

With Roots of Tomorrow, we brought sustainable agricultural training to five schools – reaching 3,400 beneficiaries – because the true revolution, the one that lasts, always starts from the land and from those who know how to cultivate it with respect. And the Choose Life project set up a milling enterprise for twenty people, introduced cereal cultivation for two groups of farmers, and supported beekeeping. Sixty-one people who now have concrete tools to respond to market demand and build resilience.

In Ethiopia, at the Girls’ House of the Busajo Campus, ninety girls were able to continue studying, receive school supplies, medical care, and an education. Thanks to the 5x1000 that so many of you chose to allocate to the Foundation, and to the work of our colleagues who, in our Homes, continue to raise funds for this project.

In Tibet, we continued to support little Lham at the Garden of Love and Compassion (Jhamtse Gatsal), founded by the educator monk Lobsang – a project we have known and loved for many years – and we purchased handcrafted bracelets from the Tibetan Children’s Village, because every small act of fair trade is also an act of cultural resistance.

And here in Italy, at home, we carried out the Vegabula Summer Edition: five students from the Brunico Hotel School who took part in a real, formative, inclusive internship. This was not a project of assistance, but a project of trust. Francesco, Emy, Robin, Euglen, and Tobias showed that when people are believed in, when they are given real opportunities, talent always finds a way to flourish.

The numbers, if we really want to look at them

One hundred thousand euros.
More precisely: €100,924.86.

Is it a lot? Is it little? It depends on how you look at it. It is certainly the result of many small and large acts of generosity: the 5x1000, the precious contribution of so many of you, of all the staff of Casa Costa 1956 hotels, of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, the Effatà exhibition, the sale of solidarity products during the “Mille Splendidi Fiori” event in Marebbe, and the contributions from our wonderful annual gathering.

But more than the numbers, something else strikes me: over five thousand people received direct or indirect support from the projects we sustained.
Five thousand lives touched. Five thousand stories intertwined with ours.

The change we carry forward

The real question we always ask ourselves – and one I believe we should all ask – is not “how much did we give?” but “what has changed?”

What has changed is the possibility for Afghan girls to continue studying despite everything.
The quality of education for hundreds of Ugandan children.
The ability of sixty-one people to build a future with their own hands.
The lives of thirty children who now have a home.
The professional future of five young people who learned to believe in themselves.

We did not solve poverty.
We did not defeat injustice.
But we walked alongside those who, every day, choose dignity, commitment, and hope. And that, believe me, is no small thing.

Where we are going

As we mentioned at the beginning, the Foundation is changing. Not in its values, not in the relationships we have built over the years, but in its form and, in part, in its direction. We are becoming Casa Costa Foundation ETS, and we are working to increasingly integrate our international commitment with a stronger focus on the local territory – here in South Tyrol, in Tuscany, in Italy.

We believe in regenerative tourism that places soil, soul, and society at its center. We believe that solidarity can be both global and local at the same time, and that hospitality should not be only for those who can pay, but also for those who need an opportunity.

We will continue to do everything we can to support the projects we have known for years – relationships built on trust are not abandoned overnight. But we will also open new paths, new dialogues, new partnerships. Always with the same spirit: that of those who believe real change is born from encounters between people who recognize one another’s dignity.

Thank you

We would like to say thank you, but not with that somewhat tired rhetoric often used in the nonprofit sector. I would like to say thank you as one says it among friends walking together. Thank you for being there. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for choosing, with your 5x1000, with a donation, or even just by following us and talking about us with others, to stand on the side of dignity.

2026 will be a new year, full of challenges and – we hope – beautiful surprises.

Shall we continue walking together?

With gratitude,
Fabio Bertocchi
(Director, Casa Costa Foundation ETS)