jay/day: La famiglia di Nonno Jay

When I was in Italy in October, I had a chance to visit Jay's daughter, Debra, who lives in Rome. We reminisced about Jay (Debra has a Frank Gehry "fish lamp" in her apartment) and she showed me a fantastic photo of Jay and all of his Italian grandchildren, which I did not have the good sense to copy. But here are some single portraits of them.

Debra and her husband, Alfredo D�Angelo run a non-profit organization called The Human Life Project, which has set up humanitarian help in many parts of the world: Cambodia, Burma, the Sahara, Pakistan, and India, as well as the gypsies in Rome. The ambitious program consists of creating schools - often building or reconstructing them, but also creating programs (English one of the most important.) They also hire and train the teachers in education and health care. They build wells for drinkable water, sell crafts in Italy to create self sufficiency, micro credits, health programs, etc. Debra has an amazing iPhoto collection of pictures from the various villages in which they've worked.

Debra and her family spend a lot of time in Cambodian villages and she says her children are happiest when they are there, playing with the other children in the villages and running free. That's the Chiat DNA.

Here are Debra and Alfredo's fabulous children ...

Francesco is 15 ...