Doctors with Africa CUAMM delivered today in La Spezia the renewed showers that will help homeless people of the city, ensuring their personal hygiene. Run by the “Gruppo di Volontariato Vincenziano San Giovanni Bosco”, the pre-existing facility has been used over 3,550 times since July 2020. The renovation, which will guarantee a more efficient and comfortable service, was funded by the U.S. Government through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
Pierluigi Peracchini, mayor of La Spezia, visited the spaces, with mgr. Luigi Ernesto Palletti, bishop of the city, Fr. Fabrizio di Loreto and Anna Iavazzo from the “Gruppo di Volontariato Vincenziano San Giovanni Bosco”, implementing partner, Fr. Dante Carraro, director of Doctors with Africa CUAMM, and Andrea Atzori, chief of party of the project “Italian Response to Covid-19” (IRC19).
Andrea Atzori, chief of party of Doctors with Africa CUAMM’s IRC19 project, stated, “Over the last few months we have been delivering a series of interventions throughout Italy. Most of them are aimed at strengthening and making more resilient pre-existing services, as we have done here in La Spezia. Since July 2020, 370 people have had access to the services available here, and showers have been used 3,550 times. But the activities of the group of volunteers is much wider: over the last months they put on the table over 24,800 meals, they made 1,300 laundries with the news machines we delivered and they distributed 2,600 food kits to around 350 families, in addition to homeless people assisted, for a total of 740 people reached”.
Fr. Dante Carraro, director of Doctors with Africa CUAMM, stated, “We are used to work in Africa, at the last mile. But this pandemic calls us to new kind of closer solidarity, here in Italy. Many of our doctors who came back from Africa, prepared to handle emergencies and epidemics there, wanted to put their experience to use for the people in need in their own communities. Here in La Spezia we had Marina Trivelli, who worked with us in Ethiopia and Angola, and made us know the group of volunteers run by Fr. Fabrizio Di Loreto and Anna Iavazzo. They were working with homeless people before our arrival and we wanted to help them to give continuity to their important service even in these hard times. We must take care of the most vulnerable people, in Italy as in Africa, because this pandemic shows us that we are deeply linked: the virus does not look at the borders, neither should solidarity.”
Doctors with Africa CUAMM has provided support to the volunteer of La Spezia thanks to the U.S. Government, which through USAID is supporting a number of initiatives in Italy, aiming at reducing the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. USAID is the U.S. Government’s premiere development organization operating in more than 100 countries worldwide.
This press release is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The contents are the responsibility of Doctors with Africa CUAMM, recipient of the Fixed Amount Award (FAA) No. 7200AA20FA00013 and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.
