Art of Education
Is Education of The Heart
A private foundation, based in Monaco with an international outlook.
Helping The Vulnerable since 2001
The Foundation was established in 2001 in Monaco by an Italian couple, Alfredo and Maria Elena Cuomo, who originally had one simple vision—to help support vulnerable children in India to gain access to educational attainment and better life chances.
Alfredo Cuomo (1933 – 2009)
Born in Rome, Alfredo Cuomo was a Fulbright student scholarship recipient who made his reputation and built his wealth as a producer in the international film industry. At a later stage of his career, he dedicated a part of his personal assets to the foundation which would bear his name.
Maria Elena Cuomo
Maria Elena Cuomo, born in Sicily, graduated from the Sapienza University of Rome with a special interest in Latin and Greek culture and enjoyed a successful career in the global banking business. She met Alfredo Cuomo in early 1990’s and together travelled the world and helped the needy. After the untimely death of her husband, she took the reins of the Foundation in 2009.
EDUCATION
Empowerment through education
A recent project for the Foundation has been the construction of an 800-pupil capacity secondary school in Mambakkam, Tamil Nadu. It has been built adhering to strict Indian Green Build Council guidelines and was recently awarded the prestigious IGBC ‘Platinum’ certification for green schools.
It is the first catholic church-run school to be awarded this honour. The new educational compound replaces an existing dilapidated old school and is the first green school to be built specifically for disadvantaged children and under resourced local rural communities in Tamil Nadu.
The school opened on June 20, 2019.
“We wanted to build a green school that provides an education to support children’ s development into responsible, compassionate and engaged citizens of tomorrow…”
SOCIAL WELFARE
The social welfare schemes supported initially in Monaco have now reached out to other regions of the world…
A flagship partnership with the Senegalese government represented by the Ministry of Health and the French charity La Chaine de l’Espoir has created the Centre Cardio-Pediatrique Cuomo (CCPC) in Dakar, the first dedicated pediatric cardiology unit to open and serve the communities of West Africa.
CCPC was funded entirely by the Cuomo Foundation who also developed a medical retraining scheme in partnership with the Alain Carpentier Institut du Coeur in Vietnam to train and equip the staff necessary for the Centre. This specialist program has now been adapted and continues to run at CCPC in Dakar.
In addition, international medical specialists attend and collaborate with local specialists to perform masterclasses and procedures to further enhance the skills of the CCPC staff.
Since its opening in 2017, the CCPC has performed over 500 successful surgical procedures on children and aims to ultimately perform over 500 operations annually.
RESEARCH
The Foundation, in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, supports a scholarship program to invest in PhD students from developing countries for research that advances the understanding of the scientific basis towards risks of climate change within their own regions. Scholarships have been awarded to students from Benin, Cambodia, Columbia, India, Myanmar, Senegal, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Vietnam.
THE ARTS
“Supporting young artists in their chosen field of creative excellence is vital for the well-being of societies…”
Metamorphosis
“How the Foundation has metamorphosed since its inception is not too dissimilar to the actions of a chrysalis transforming itself into a butterfly. From one beginning, life changes !”
Board Members
Maria Elena Cuomo
President
Peter Hungerbuhler
Secretary
Bettina Ragazzoni
Treasurer
Anne-Marie Fissore
Member
Gilles Dreyfus
Member
André Garino
Member
Office Team
Francisco A. Diaz Lison
CEO
Janaka Samarakoon
Communications Officer
Jonathan Tabourel
Accounting Administrative Assistant
Charles Kulandai
Project Manager - India
Sarah Lieberson
Advisor - Freelance
Nina Orenga de Gaffory Orsini
Advisor - Freelance