Last week we were thrilled to welcome Massimo Donatelli, the founder and CEO of Miti in Italy, to our offices here in Dublin. Together, we are working on an exciting project that aims to help to rebuild the livelihoods of the producers from an Italian region devastated by a powerful earthquake last year.

Hundreds of people tragically lost their lives in the earthquake and entire towns and communities were left in ruins. The community spirit during this time of real struggle and hardship was inspirational and in the days after the disaster, a number of initiatives quickly formed to help support the victims.
Immediately after the catastrophic events affecting Amatrice and other neighbouring towns and villages, demand for local products increased, mainly from overseas, to support the revival of the economy. As many of these small producers had no way to sell internationally, Kooomo worked with Miti in Italy to provide a platform where this could be achieved.

The idea is to showcase the best that the region has to offer. The Amatriciama portal allows these producers to come together as a sort of online co-operative where resources can be shared and where they can benefit from each other’s success.
The instant global response has been an inspiration. During the immediate aftermath, thousands of volunteers from across Italy offered their assistance. Locals provided shelter to the victims, offering their homes through AirBnB and restaurants both in Italy and abroad donated money from every spaghetti all’Amatriciana sale. Crowdfunding campaigns raised millions of dollars and Facebook donated $500,000 in Facebook ads to the Italian Red Cross.

But there is still a lot of work to do. We are delighted to be able to help these artisan producers by giving them an opportunity to reach millions of people, begin rebuilding their businesses and boost the economy of the villages. In the next few weeks we will share some of the success stories from Miti in Italy and how some of these products have reached a worldwide audience. Stay tuned!