KARACHI, Nov 22: The Italian embassy in Islamabad and the consulate-general of Italy in Karachi have teamed up with The Citizen Foundation and The Friends of the Kidney Centre to present a series of concerts by Luigi Cinque from Italy and Fuzon from Pakistan.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday afternoon, the consul-general of Italy, Bruno A. Pasquino, said that the concerts would be held in Karachi on Nov 24, in Islamabad on Nov 26 and in Lahore on Nov 28.

He added that the proceeds of the concerts would go to the well-known charities working in the education and health sectors. "There is a possibility of building bridges between cultures if the practitioners of various types of music are allowed to perform together.

It is worth noting that the function of an Italian consulate is to promote Italian culture abroad. But since Italy is a place where a multitude of cultures meet, what we are trying to create here is a fusion of various types of music," he said.

Ahsan Saleem of The Citizens Foundation explained that his was a not-for-profit organization. "It began with the establishment of a school by The Citizens Foundation in 1996. And what we discovered afterwards that there is no limit to human generosity and kindness.

As philanthropists came forward and funds began to trickle in we started to set up more and more schools. At present, The Citizens Foundation is running 180 schools in 22 cities of the country. And our target is to establish 1,000 such schools for 360,000 children by 2050. These concerts will lend support to our effort," he hoped.

Marriana Karim of The Friends of the Kidney Centre said that her organization was also a not-for-profit institution. "We offer free filter clinic to patients from Mondays to Fridays.

After diseases of patients have been identified, costs of treatment are assessed. If an individual earns less than Rs10,000 his treatment is free. For others, special packages are tailored. In any case, 75 per cent of patients at The Kidney Centre are treated free of charge," she said.

Luigi Cingue and Shafqat Amanat Ali spoke about the concerts. They hoped that they would learn immensely from each other. Conceding that they had little time to rehearse before they performed, they said that they would be able to improvise in whatever time available to them.