Covid-19 Emergency in Italy. We need you!

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