Covid-19 Emergency in Italy. We need you!

I hope you and your family are well.

As you may know, Italy was the first European country to have been attacked by COVID-19 after China, before the virus spread throughout the world.

By the end of 2020, the number of reported cases of infections amounted to 2.107.166 while the victim’s number amounted to 74.159.

2021 began pretty well. The epidemic curve is decreasing, the vaccination plan was launched but the public attention remains high and even if the cases are currently fewer in number they are still copious.

Our everyday life was changed worldwide. We all wear facemasks and sanitizer is at hand.

We suffer from lack of socialization. We miss spending time together, reuniting with our friends and families, exchanging hugs and kisses.

For us Italians all this constitutes a great deprivation.

We are lucky since we have people waiting for us at home, people helping us with grocery shopping or going to the chemist’s on our behalf when we are in solitary confinement because we came into contact with a person who has tested positive for COVID-19.

However, there are people who are not that lucky. Therefore, a few months ago IBO opted for the extension of its pilot project from the single italian region where it first was conducted to fifteen italian cities (Crotone, Napoli, Ferrara, Parma, Fidenza, Rimini, Piacenza, Roma, Milano, Torino, Bergamo, Bari, Catania, Pisa, Treviso). This above-mentioned project growth was delivered by IBO in collaboration with the Youth Department and the Department of Families.

IBO Italia and its institutional partners involved seventy eight young people aged 18 to 35 in six-months domestic care and assistance services for elderly people.

IBO Italia chose to extend its range of home services to the whole national territory, resorting to the national multimedia platform IBO created for the Emilia-Romagna region. The digital platform gathers all the information concerning home services, namely the delivery of essential goods including food products and medicines Municipalities and associations provide lonely people with.

Seventy eight young operators make themselves available to monitor the people’s state of need, to refer people in difficulty to the local competent authorities and to map the social realities, the Municipalities and the small commercial activities which provide home services. It will be possible to volunteer and in doing so to multiply the number of people at elderly people’s disposal in the different cities.

This whole thing represents a special experience to us. The Covid-19 situation is slowly improving but there is still a need for people like you who stand by our side.

Thank you for your closeness and for what you will be able to do in the future!

Linda

Hi,

as we anticipated in the last update, we would like to tell you about a our work in the latest months.

IBO Italia is not used to operate during emergencies. Nevertheless, as already done in the past when natural disasters hit Italy, IBO has joined forces in favour of the community. Responding to the need for childcare services in a lot of families “Custodiscili a casa” was born (“Take care of them at home”). 

 This service, thanks to baby-sitting volunteers, has granted care for the children of medical personnel, busy standing face to face with Coronavirus.

 Hospitals signalled us the families that needed support with childcare. In 48 hours we contacted the families, trying to understand their necessities: how many days, what time of the day and pieces of information about their children.

 Then we searched for volunteers, looking first of all at their capabilities and their experiences and secondo of all at their availability. Once we found the right volunteer, we linked them with the families organizing a couple of preliminary meetings, where parents were present. Baby-sitting took place at their houses, so that the children would not have to go outside.

Each volunteer received training before beginning to baby-sit and each of them has been given a health insurance and a volunteer kit: Volunteer T-shirt, PPE (masks and gloves), going-out permit (self-certification and IBO’s volunteers statement)  

 SOME NUMBERS

 VOLUNTEERS

41 people have signed in to become volunteers: 39 women and 2 men, 90% on them between 20 and 35 years old.

Total hours of volunteering: 528 hours

Average shift’s duration: 4 hours and 20 Minutes

We organized 5 webinars for the volunteer’s training and 4 monitoring meetings

FAMILIES

We received 12 baby-sitting requests Abbiamo ricevuto 12 richieste da parte delle famiglie.

7 of the families live in Parma, while 5 of them live throughout the province.

15 medical officers have benefitted from the service: 3 Anesthesiologists, 1 Gynecologist, 2 Psychologists, 2 Biologists, 2 Obstetricians, 1 Radiologist and 5 Nurses.  

Each family have 1 to 2 children, some of which around 1 year old, some between 3-6 years old and some others between 9-11 years old.

Volunteer shifts covered from 2 to 5 times a week. Timeframes varied from 2 hours per day to even 12 hours per day.

EVIDENCE

Maria Grazia, 30 years old woman from Puglia, has been in Parma for a couple of years and she did not think twice before becoming a volunteer   :

"I work in a tech-shop and I love my job because I like reaching out to all different people.  Staying active makes me feel alive and I could not simply not involve myself in the fight against this emergency. I was watching the news about Covid’s effects on TV one mornign. There was something about the increasing need for medical staff and nurses in hospitals. The pictures shocked me. Medical personnel has done and is doing a lot for people forced into a hospital bed. I wanted to help them, to help who was living so much to this cause.  I have now completed 4 weeks taking care of a little boy. He is almost 2 years old and he is absolutely prescious and smart.. He responds well to the activities and he never stopped doing funny grimaces.".

On the 28 April we receive this message from Monica, nurse and mother.

“It has been worderful… I haven’t seen my daughter like this in a very long time… thank you for what you do… We are not the only heroes in this battle only because we are in the hospital. Heroes are the people who help, and right now, that is what you are doing. When even the state has failed childcare, you covered it, and this is something extraordinary I will never forget”.

This has been for us a really special experience.

 Thank you for your help and your interest in this cause and for what you could do in the future.

 Linda