An agreement for protection, transparency, and accountability has been signed to guarantee care, dignity, and a future full of hope for little Mariano. A story of fragility that becomes collective strength.
Rome, February 16, 2025 – There are moments that draw a definitive line between the "before" and the "after," moments when a fragile life encounters a promise greater than fear. For little Mariano, that boundary was crossed on February 5, when the Bambino Gesù Foundation of Cairo, ETS Philanthropic Organization, chose to embrace him, officially adopting his journey of healing, protection, and rebirth.
Mariano, known as "the 200-kg boy," carries on his young shoulders a condition of severe morbid obesity that profoundly affected his childhood. That number doesn't just reflect a body weight: it speaks of fatigue, immobility, vulnerability, and isolation. It speaks of the urgent need for highly specialized care and continuous medical and human support. His condition requires a structured, multidisciplinary approach—endocrinology, nutrition, psychology, and rehabilitation—capable of restoring not only his health, but also his prospects, autonomy, and dignity.
It was not simply a matter of signing a legal agreement with his parents, Sigismondo and Tamara, but an act of moral and spiritual responsibility.
The Foundation has chosen to be Mariano's shield, home, and guardian, assuming the exclusive responsibility of gathering, coordinating, and guaranteeing every energy, every resource, and every gesture of love the world wishes to give him. A commitment founded on the strictest transparency, so that every contribution transforms into concrete care, every donation into tangible dignity, every support into a real future.
Like a sweet caress, sealing this newborn bond, on February 6th, Mariano's story reached the heights of hope and grace. The child and his family were welcomed in a Private Audience by His Holiness Pope Leo XIV. In that suspended silence, filled with light and peace, Mariano received the Apostolic Blessing: a gesture of spiritual caress, an invisible embrace that illuminated the shadows of the past, brought comfort to the present, and entrusted his future to a greater, shared and protected project, imbued with hope, love, and protection.
"We have decided to embrace Mariano, to take on his fragility and transform it into living hope," said Monsignor Yoannis Lazhi Gaid, President of the Foundation and former Personal Secretary to His Holiness Pope Francis, with intense emotion. We could not remain bystanders to the burden weighing on a child's shoulders. We have chosen to share it, to support him alongside thousands of generous hearts, and to vigorously relaunch the initiative: We are all Mariano. We will not walk alone: we will do so together with anyone who wants to join us, coordinating every assistance with rigor and transparency, so that Mariano's hope is no longer a fragile wait, but a safe home, constant care, a possible future. No burden is unliftable when it is lifted by the love of many.
The Foundation invites institutions, associations, businesses, and citizens to join this initiative with responsibility and heart, so that Mariano and his family will no longer feel alone and can face this journey supported by a united community.
Security. Transparency. Unity.
This protocol is not just a legal document, but a moral and public pact: a shield for Mariano, a guarantee for those who donate, a coordinated project that ensures that every healthcare intervention, every financial support, and every institutional action converges into a single, comprehensive plan for care and recovery.
Today is not just one child's story. Today is everyone's responsibility.
Today, truly, we are all Mariano.
