Giulia Penna was born in Australia, but lived in Italy for five years after marrying a Neapolitan. Even though she grew up here, she feels deeply connected to the Bel Paese, to her Italian roots, and to those of her husband.
Giulia has been very active in community aid for some time; always there to lend a hand if someone needed help within the Italian community, especially the elderly. In particular, she organises baskets of personal care products to be donated to elderly people in need in various nursing homes.
With a background in banking, Giulia found her way to this new life path almost by chance:
"I worked in a bank and I’m a financial advisor, but about a year and a half ago I started selling detergents at the Flemington market and participating in different events within the community.”
This is how Giulia started: by helping a friend who had secured a market stall with her new venture. Within four weeks, all of her customers had started ordering from her directly.
She was impassioned, recounting the first time she directly delivered the baskets she later began assembling to a nursing home:
"I spent a morning with the girls from Canley Vale Aged Care Home, and distributed 70 baskets among all of the residents ― they were very happy. Since then, I’ve started doing it more often; it makes me happy to be able to do something for others.
“These are hard times for everyone. As usual, the weakest get hit first; it’s up to the people who have resources to help them, to try to make them smile," explained the financial advisor, who also confirmed that she has made a small deposit to do what she can to distribute to more homes for the elderly, continuing this charity project.
Giulia also organises the distribution of vouchers for various other associations and care homes:
"We are now also in contact with the Father Atanasio Gonelli Charitable Fund. We are aware of the foundation's work, and it would be an honour to collaborate with them. We also want to extend our charity to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in the children's oncology wards in the future ― our aim is to try to help as many people as possible.”
