Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella

Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella (1904–2005) was an Italian educationalist, social worker and philanthropist, who founded the Villaggio della Madre e del Fanciullo (Village of the Mother and Child) for single mothers in Milan and is also remembered for her work with children in Sardinia.

Early life and Sardinia Elda Mazzocchi was born in Milan into an upper-middle class family, on 14 December 1904. She was daughter of Cesare Mazzocchi, an architect and Isabella Bossi, an elementary school teacher. Her grandfather designed the Cimitero Maggiore di Milano, Milan's largest cemetery. One of her cousins was Dino Risi, a film director. She studied in schools in Milan but was mainly educated at home, studying French and German. In 1921, Mazzocchi married Enzo Scarzella, a mining engineer, and in 1922, at the age of 18, she moved to Domusnovas in Sardinia, where her husband's family administered an estate. This was a poor area; a world that she had not previously experienced. Just after her arrival, a father murdered his daughter who had become pregnant, with little negative reaction in the village. Infant mortality among the children of the miners of the area was high and Mazzocchi responded by starting a kindergarten in 1922, following this by opening a nursery school a year later, and a canteen for mothers and children. She returned to Milan in 1923 to give birth to her daughter, Isabella, named after her mother, and then returned to Sardinia.

Mazzocchi introduced the nursery school teacher to the educational ideas of Giuseppina Pizzigoni. This method paid particular attention to the use of materials offered by nature and to the promotion of agricultural activity. It aimed for children to stay outdoors as much as possible. At the beginning of the thirties the kindergarten still did not have an adequate location, because the municipality could not afford the construction of a purpose-built school. Mazzocchi asked for donations from wealthy friends and organized several charity events until it became possible to build the new asylum, which was inaugurated on 2 July 1933. However, this coincided with her departure from Sardinia after her husband concluded that he only needed to visit Sardinia a couple of times a year.

Since its foundation in 1945, the Village has had various financial problems, always managing to survive thanks to many benefactors, including, in 1985, the pop singer Fiordaliso, who mobilized the attention of the media with a press conference in which she told her story of life as a single mother and her experience as a guest at the "Village". She also issued a new record and donated all the proceeds to the Village. Compared to other welfare institutions of the time, there were no pre-established conditions for acceptance and mothers in need of assistance were welcomed, without distinction between legitimate mothers and illegitimate mothers. There were no set times for activities, to allow the mothers to breastfeed in peace. In some cases, the Village was also able to accommodate orphans. It has become a model for best practices in the care and education of single mothers and continues to be studied. Over the years, additional facilities were added, including a craft school, open to outsiders, in the 1960s and a clinic offering gynecological, pediatric, psychological and health care in general in 1975.

Publications Mazzochi's publications were:

Death Elda Mazzocchi Scarzella died in Milan on 6 May 2005 at the age of 100. Her ashes are in the family tomb in the Milan Monumental Cemetery. Milan City Council honoured her with a minute's silence and her name is recorded in the cemetery's Famedio (Pantheon) of illustrious people.