Italian Lad, 13, Financially ‘Adopted’ By Norwood Man-This Day in Norwood History-July 15, 1957

Mr. Hilding O. Carlson, 224 Washington Street, Norwood, has financially “adopted” Orfeo Federici, a 13-year-old Italian boy, through Foster Parents’ Plan, Inc., 352 Fourth Avenue, New York City. The Foster Parent has promised to contribute $15 a month towards the child’s support for at least one year.

Foster Parents’ Plan, which has rehabilitated more than 76,000 children on a personal basis since its founding in 1937, is now helping 11,000 youngsters in Greece, South Korea, Italy, Western Germany, France, and Belgium, and has just undertaken a vast project in Vietnam. According to first-hand reports from Saigon, tens of thousands of Vietnamese children need help as a result of the Indo-China War.

Plan has just launched its Twentieth Anniversary Drive to find Foster Parents for the thousands of still needy youngsters overseas and make 1957 the best year they have ever known. “We are indeed grateful to Mr. Carlson for giving Orfeo this wonderful gift of hope and help,” declared Miss Gloria C. Matthews, Director of Plan in the United States and Canada. “We earnestly hope that everyone who reads this will extend a helping had to a destitute child somewhere. We shall be happy to send full information on how to help a child in Europe, Korea, or Vietnam to any individual. school, or group writing to Foster Parents’ Plan, 352 Fourth Avenue, New York City,” Miss Matthews added.

Foster Parents’ Plan is a nonprofit, non-propaganda, non-sectarian, independent, government-approved relief organization which provides children who are orphaned, distressed, or otherwise made destitute with the care, education, and moral support they need. “Adoption” through Plan is financial, not legal. The Foster Parent promises to contribute $15 monthly for at least one year, of this sum the child receives $9 each month as an outright cash grant. The remainder is made up of periodic food and new clothing packages. Because each child is treated as an individual, any special needs that arise are taken care of by Plan from its General Fund. This fund is made up of contributions from the public.

To encourage a warm, personal relationship between Foster Parent and child, the Foster Parent receives a history of the child and a photograph and correspondence through the Plan office is translated both ways. This exchange bridges the gap between Foster Parent and child and gives the youngster the feeling of security and love he needs.

Poverty And illness

Orfeo lives in the small village of Colle di Fuori, outside of Rome, amidst poverty and illness His father served in the army during the war, and during that time he contracted tuberculosis. For the past thirteen years, he has been in and out of TB Sanitariums and he is now totally incapacitated for work. Mrs. Orfeo is also too ill to work as she suffers from heart trouble and hypertension. The father’s illness was not recognized as being caused by the war and so the family receives no pension. The burden of supporting the family has fallen on the shoulders of Giovanni (22) and Angelo (20). No matter how hard they try, they are unable to obtain more than a week’s work each month apiece. When they do, they never earn more than $1.20 a day. During the winter months they cannot find jobs at all. Because the parents are disabled for work, both boys have been temporarily exempted from their military service.

Ronia (17) is predisposed to TB and she cannot do fieldwork, which is the only thing she might occasionally find in the way of employment. She keeps house for her ailing mother The family has a small strip of land assigned to them by the government, for which they will have to pay $30.00 a year plus interest for twenty years before it really belongs to them. The produce of this land is barely enough for the family’s table.

The family of six shares a miserable two-room shack which fortunately belong to them The place is half-concrete and half-plaster There are no sanitary facilities and no running water. Cooking is done with brushwood over a rudimentary fireplace. Their furniture consists of only an old, wooden table, and a few chairs. Before Plan aid, their bedding was no more than corn leave mattresses and torn blankets. Orfeo has had a previous Foster Parent who can no longer help. The Norwood man’s “adoption” assures him of continued, still-needed benefits — a $9.00 monthly cash grant, food, clothing, and medical care, whenever necessary.

Orfeo has black hair and black eyes. A good boy, he is sociable and affectionate. He enjoys studying and is very intelligent, He attends the fourth grade of primary school where his favorite subject is geography.

(All articles were originally published in the Norwood Messenger unless otherwise noted)