With his UNICEF hat on, which he has been wearing for the last ten years, Roberto Bolle wrote about his five day visit to the Central African Republic in “Io, donna”, the Corriere della Sera's weekly magazine.
It is one of the poorest countries in the world, with a mortality rate for the under-fives of 173 for every thousand, and for every 100 births a mother dies for complications which are curable.
He toured the area with the French group Action contre la faim visiting clinics and hospitals, though a hospital may have on five rooms and insufficient staffing. On the fifth day Bolle returned to Milan:
Going home to a Milan which now seems as fake as reality tv. The one thing missing to complete my journey is to get back into my world and dance for Africa.
In fact, the 20th November saw the Roberto Bolle Gala for UNICEF at the Auditorium Conciliazione in Rome.
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Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
