The non-profit organisation Butterfly Foundation was created in 2002 by Claudio Maneri. Claudio hoped to significantly change his own life through changing his priorities after the loss of his daughter Sibylle. The initial idea was to transform the pain he felt at the loss of a child, into love for all those who are often forced to struggle for their own survival, as if his own pain could, with time, become mixed up with that of all those who lose a child, without feeling anger, but with the necessary acceptance of a temporary loss.
The first schools were created in Nepal, Mynamar, Madagascar and Ethiopia: ‘Schools without Borders’ signifies the importance of education surpassing ideological, territorial or religious barriers. It is a mission aimed at setting up schools in countries where even a little help could mean a huge difference for many children, giving them the possibility of a future which they are too often denied.
The Butterfly Foundation began to construct wells in Africa in 2003 ,particularlyin Ethiopia. Its mission then expanded to education and international cooperation. It gained ‘non-profit organisation’ certification on the 22nd January 2004.
The third sector of intervention, sanitation, was initiated thanks to the creation of small sanitary structures in places with a high infant mortality rate and places in which endemics are particularly linked to a worrying lack of hygiene.