Having established its first foreign center in 1987 , the '' Comunità Incontro '' organization had grown to encompass more than two hundred chapters around the world by the late 2000s , including a number outside Italy and as far away as South America and Asia . Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi presented a speech on the occasion of Gelmini 's birthday in January 2005 . ( Berlusconi donated a gift of € 5 million to '' Comunità Incontro '' chapters in Thailand following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami disaster . ) The politician Maurizio Gasparri characterized him as " one of the few heroes of our time . " Mass media reports worldwide have described Gelmini as politically well-connected
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
Pierino Gelmini