Eugenia Granito
Italian woman sells historic home to fund medical aid for Gaza children
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- Eugenia is selling her 17th-century family property in Rocca Cilento, southern Italy.
- She intends to donate the entire proceeds to Doctors Without Borders to support children in Gaza.
- She hopes the funds will contribute to building a hospital or another medical facility.
- The property includes a historic chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, documented since 1751.
- The decision was publicized by real estate agent Francesco Pio Figliola, who is overseeing the sale.
An elderly woman in southern Italy, identified as Eugenia Granito, is selling her 17th-century family home and pledging the entire proceeds to Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) to help provide medical care for children in Gaza.
Granito, who lives in Rocca Cilento in the province of Salerno, hopes the money will help fund a hospital or another medical facility for children affected by the war and struggling to access essential healthcare.
"Everything I receive from the sale of this house will go to Doctors Without Borders for the children of Gaza," she told Vanity Fair Italia in an interview published on November 5.
She said she would consult the humanitarian organization on how best to use the donation, expressing hope that it could contribute to establishing a medical facility.
"When we go to the notary, they will have to tell me what they want to do with this money: a hospital or another facility, so that these children no longer die," she said.
The decision means parting with a property closely tied to generations of family history. The 17th-century building includes a chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph, whose existence was documented in 1751 during a pastoral visit by a local bishop. The chapel was commissioned by the Granito family.
The property's garden also preserves important personal memories. A persimmon tree planted by Granito's father in 1949 to mark her wedding has stood there for nearly eight decades, alongside a walnut tree and a cherry tree.
The sale is being handled by Francesco Pio Figliola, a real estate agent specializing in high-value properties in the Cilento area, who brought Granito's decision to public attention through social media.
Figliola said he had never encountered a gesture of comparable magnitude throughout his career, describing himself as deeply moved by her decision to turn a property carrying generations of family memories into an opportunity to help children facing immense suffering.
Granito's decision follows other cases in Italy in which individuals have directed proceeds from property sales and inheritances towards healthcare and charitable causes.
In Pescara, the 2024 sale of a villa belonging to Sergio Annibaldi and Alda Lanciotti, a childless couple who had arranged for their property to be sold, generated €286,968.49. The proceeds were used to purchase medical equipment for the neonatal, pediatric and pediatric surgery departments at Santo Spirito Hospital.
Other bequests across Italy have supported pediatric cancer treatment, hospital equipment and palliative care, with individuals leaving properties and savings to public healthcare institutions.
