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