The power of ordinary people. ‘The creative Italian media during their Crown Lockdown

For weeks Roberta Brivio phone rang several times an hour. “I can not even find time to eat,” he says from his office in Melegnano, south of Milan. A 74-year-old psychologist living in Lombardy, Brivio is the president of the local branch of the Italian emergency Psychology Society. Italy has the highest number of deaths in the world COVID-19, with more than 16,000 deaths associated with the crown so far; It was more than half of the deaths in the northern region of Lombardy. In early March, after COVID-19 blast Italian volumes found burned near his home, Brivio and four colleagues a toll-free mental health for the Lombardy residents struggling to cope with death and isolation. She began to receive calls immediately. “Many people call us with fear, loneliness or anxiety,” he says. “We see a lot of panic attacks; sometimes occur during the phone call.” Last month, the toll over 750 residents who struggle helped says Brivio. now coordinates a network of 200 professional psychologists who have attained to the volunteers. Brivio jokes, “I have to learn to use Zoom, had.” Thousands of other Italians are also finding new ways to support one another, as the country enters its fifth week barrage. It was not long ago that Italy was divided bitter, with rampant anti-immigrant sentiment and populist politicians topping opinion polls. But now it seems that the pandemic has brought Italians together. “There is always the search for an opponent, but we are so much solidarity to be seen,” says Brivio. “Hopefully it’s not over yet.” Could Anna Paladino, a psychologist and volunteer 48 years in Milan, says connected to the toll-free number, because now “something big” made happen to residents of mental health; some of their clients were living in the “red zone”, the first in the south of Milan focus zone, which is also close to their home. “In some emergency situations, such as plane crashes, you think, but it could have said they were not there,” he says. This pandemic is different. “When we talk about how to be infected or relatively lose, it really could happen to me” because of the heartbreaking stories that feel the emotional toll on the volunteers can be tough, says Brivio. “Today is a woman named after trying to commit suicide,” he says. “The other day a woman called to say:” My husband has died and my children are 3 and 5. As you can tell them “asks that volunteers attend online sessions to recover and use cases komplexesten But station do not?. all the stories are unbearable. “sometimes we think, OK, we did it! ‘ “, Says Paladiino.’ This person feels calmer. Are in a position in the evening to sleep now ‘. Other initiatives are popping up all over Italy about how people give their time and skills. Arrested after their restaurants some cooks meals for the homeless before. theater actors are tales live streaming were closed for stuck at home children to schools over a month ago. in Southern Italy, leaving the residents for food on the streets for more needy. Stephen Brown, a volunteer in Milan, says many Italians from the first shock of the crisis and the growing number of ver deaths have been postponed. “I think we remember the shock we felt for a very long time in the first week of March : people panicked to supermarkets take the hardships of the most vulnerable, “he says.” But we are also the strength of the common people had to remember to answer “, he adds. Brown, who is in his early twenties, f apart from the “voluntary emergency brigades”, an initiative of grassroots organizations with the City of Milan Partnership and the Italian NGO Emergency. The initiative coordinates to bring young people food and medicine for people infected in quarantine, the elderly and other vulnerable people in Milan, one of the worst affected cities in Italy. Maria Maletta, an elderly woman who was alone in his apartment on the ninth floor of the popular Fourth Quarter Cagnino work, defines the initiative “a miracle.” Nearly 78 years and with different pre-existing conditions, it is among the most risk of complications if COVID-19 starts, and was strongly advised to stay at home. But if the foot was turned on, needed medication and had no one that could bring. “I am alone. I have no one,” he says. “I have always gone out of me, but now things have changed.” For weeks, she says, she would “guard.” What remains on the initiative, two young men -Lorenzo and Edward Zerbini-went to the local pharmacy for them on Saturday, masks, carry ID cards and keep a distance. If the author block in Lombardy on March 8 was presented Lorenzo his master’s thesis. his brother Edward ran to a car dealer and was forced to use all his paid vacation before a leave of absence. with a new abundance of free time, they decided to dedicate the most vulnerable. Many of the 300 volunteers of the project “are younger or students who have lost their jobs,” says Mark the Trecchina, the project coordinator for the NGO Emergency, trains volunteers and provides logistical supervision. The initiative was so well received that hundreds of others have asked to join the “brigades”, and held about 300 on a waiting list to prevent too many people at once to get out. Another 50 volunteers stay at home, sewing masks for other volunteers. Other Italians are finding help time in addition to their work. with a final video for a sick relative when hundreds pandemic in Brescia, Lombardia, brothers Paolo and Gabriel Carrera started killing donate tablet found at the center of a computer network for families hospitals-supply. All visits to hospitals have banned during the crisis, so that when an infected loved ones are taken to the hospital, relatives are not able to say a final goodbye when a patient dies. Overwhelmed by this situation, a local hospital asked the director of a local newspaper to ask for help; once again he asked the Carrera brothers for help, because they work in an association of local small businesses. “The thing staggering inhumanity of death,” says Paul Carrera. “It is not unbearable for families unable to have any contact [before he died]. Nurses have told us that they were breaking news to channeling families. Some people said, Remember Me, I’m dying ‘or’ tell my sons and daughters who loved her ‘. “the brothers Carrera know what it’s like a one-lose loved without being able to say goodbye. His eldest uncle died of Corona mid-March, but were not able to talk to him. After contact, the Carrera brothers used their professional connections to coordinate the campaign. The local newspaper for donations and a cooperative of taxi drivers called voluntarily to collect pills and take them to hospitals. “So far we have about a hundred tablets to local hospitals and facilities provided for assisted living,” says Gabriel Carrera, adding that all but two or three tablets donated brand new. “Donations not only came from Brescia, but from Milan, Rome and even from abroad. […] We had no idea that there willing to help so many people.” They have heart-warming responses received were from families able to get their loved ones to speak one last time. Paul says that the most important work for patient care would be to give them a real chance. “But in these perplexing times, we do everything possible to give a little ‘sense of people’s lives.”
Picture copyright by Christian Minelli-NurPhoto / Getty Images