Ernesto “Tino” Mazzolari has owned a business in Italy focused on construction for the last 50 years. He has lived in the town of Brescia, Italia, his whole life and has been an active member of his Catholic community for many years.
He has always had a passion for giving back to the community and has worked on a lot of non-profit work in supporting underprivileged communities in countries like Africa and Lithuania.
In 2002, Mazzolari went to Lithuania to give orphan women a home when they had outgrown the orphanage at age 18. At the time, there weren’t many home options for women to go at this age, and there was a theme of homelessness and safety issues with not having a place to go.
Mazzolari, with a team, built two homes for around 32-33 girls, and it took them 3-4 years. Though neighbors would complain because they didn’t want their home equity to go down as a result so it caused a delay. Not to mention they would go back and forth from Milan to Lithuania, which is around a 5-7 hour plane ride and not the most convenient mode of transportation between planes, trains, and cars.
Mazzolari showed emotion when telling this story, “Ho fatto questo lavoro volontario, non ho preso un soldo e l’ho fatto per aiutare le ragazze. Con queste case, potevamo dare un tetto alle ragazze e un modo di abitare in un modo civile. Era un progetto lungo, tre/quattro anni per finire tutto.” said Mazzolari in Italian.
English translation “I took this work on voluntarily, I didn’t receive any money from this work, I did it only to help the girls. With these houses, we were able to give a roof over their heads, and a better way to live.”
The houses that Mazzolari and his team built are still here today, and they are known as Casa Di Maura (Maura’s House) in Lithuania.
Hi! My name is Julia and I am a staff writer for The Mycenaean. I have two dogs that I love to talk about and I love reading!