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Home / Awards / Servitor Pacis Award / 1997 THE SERVITOR PACIS AWARD RECIPIENTS 1997 - Ernesto Olivero Ernesto Olivero, born in Mercato San Severino, in the province of Salerno, Italy, founded the Ser.Mi.G "SERMIG" (Servizio Missionario Giovani/Youth Missionary Service) in 1964. He intended that the organization, as articulated in its statutes, would strive "to fight against hunger in the world", a grand and seemingly unrealistic ideal, given the disparity between its ambitious goals and available means. SERMIG would quickly attract the involvement of engineers, architects and contractors, and is well-known for its spirit of practicality, determination and honesty in utilizing donated resources in order to address situations of poverty. With his characteristic candor and fighting spirit, Ernesto Olivero successfully solicited the support of celebrities to lend their assistance in raising funds for the group's important humanitarian projects. Resulting from requests from his volunteers to "consecrate" themselves, SERMIG, in the early 1980s became a lay fraternity composed of consecrated young men and women and married couples, with Ernesto as their head. Through SERMIG, Ernesto has accomplished much good. He has been successful in encouraging young people to work for the building of a more humane and just society, and has promoted the practice of "restitution", reminding others of their responsibilities to be generous stewards of their time, talent and goods to those less fortunate. He has also undertaken humanitarian missions in countries in need: to Poland in 1982 and to Lebanon since 1984. Following the Gulf War, he worked to alleviate the immediate struggles of the Iraqi population, and well as with problems associated with the influx of a massive number of Iraqi refugees into Jordan. SERMIG's Arsenal of Peace (Turin) and Arsenal of Hope (San Paolo) have provided needed assistance to the homeless, to children and to the elderly. At this time, he has published more than twenty books. Pope John Paul II has offered encouragement to Ernesto, exhorting him to "be the faithful friend of all the abandoned children in the world" and to fight "so that the new millennium might be a time of peace and accord".
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