Alberto Cairo
In his mid-30s, Alberto Cairo picked up his life as an Italian lawyer and physical therapist to move to Kabul, Afghanistan, to oversee an International Committee of the Red Cross rehabilitation center for victims of the war with the Soviet Union. Since then, Cairo, 55, has overseen the opening of five more Afghan clinics that have cared for 95,000 patients, including non-war victims. Nearly all of his 320 staff members have similar disabilities as their patients, a practice Cairo calls “positive discrimination.” He sat down with The Examiner to share why he gives what he gives, and how more of us could, too.


Do you consider yourself to be of a specific faith?

I’m a Christian, but that’s not the reason I’m doing what I’m doing. As a human being, I feel it is my duty to do something for other people in need. To believe or not to believe is something else, but I feel it is my duty to do something for people who are less fortunate, who are in bad situations.