Going beyond repression: the fight against organized crime also involves prevention. Mission accomplished in the City of Sersale.
The key word of the meeting debate on the theme “Women victims of mafia violence: growing up in legality” was prevention to together stigmatize abject forms of violence that degrade humanity.
The anti-mafia dissemination event was promoted today, Sunday 12 May 2024, by the Arcobaleno association, in concert with the Fidapa association, Rotaract and the Rita Levi Montalcini Higher Institute of Sersale.
The work of the lively dialectical exchange was introduced by the lawyer Carmela Schipani in her role as president of Fidapa Sersale.
The committed volunteer from Sersale said: “Today, on Mother’s Day, we know first-hand what Lea Garofalo has done to build a society without violence. It’s no small thing. You can’t delegate everything to the police. Civil society must deal with legality.”
The mayor of Sersale Carmine Capellupo recalled “the cultural fervor that exists in the piedmont town with many volunteers who work for the common good, activating important synergies also on the legality front.”
The culture councilor of the Municipality of Sersale Serfina Pettinato instead hoped for “a greater protagonism of women”.
Among the speakers was also the head teacher of the Sersale Higher Institute Giovanna Moscato, who underlined “the priority role of school and training in eradicating the disvalue of the mafia and violence against women.”
Representing the Arcobaleno association was the manager Paola Barletta, recalling the purpose of the announcement on legality which “aims to raise public awareness and promote active citizenship also among the new generations.
There were many young people in the council room and Marcella Sirianni of Rotaract discussed the topic of legality for young people.
Lea Garofalo’s story is an authentic story, permeated with love and courage: a few words of the edifying biography are enough to feel the strings of emotion vibrate.
Marisa Garofalo recounted the Ndrangheta feminicide of her sister Lea. She said: “Lea, she fell in love with the wrong person from a very young age and she understood it immediately, too because she came from an Ndrangheta family.
She suffered beatings and threats from her partner, but she never gave in. Lea’s body burned for two long days. She wasn’t protected enough. We became a civil party and obtained justice with four life sentences, but our life is no longer the same, our daily life has disappeared. We must all resemble Leah who did not lack courage.”
The young magistrate Silvia Peru instead placed emphasis “on the difference between witness and collaborator of justice, useful tools that need to be corroborated to undermine the silence shielded by the ‘Ndrangheta clique”.
The deputy prosecutor at the Court of Catanzaro spoke at length about Maria Concetta Cacciola, another justice witness, victim of the ‘Ndrangheta, who died on 20 August 2011.
The reflections of Donatella Soluri, president of the Provincial Commission for Equal Opportunities, who recalled the example of Maria Chindamo, indicated illegality as a counter-culture and stigmatized indifference with four verbs: “I see, I feel, I speak and I do.”
Professor Enzo Bubbo, legal representative of the Petronà Comprehensive Institute, presented the recently published essay Seeds of Legality, extrapolating from it the concept of legality that the young justice witness Rita Atria had: “Before talking about the mafia we must do self-criticism and note what is mafia-like in us and only then fight it in others and around us, do it with facts and not stop at empty words.”
The event concluded with the awarding of the “Guardians of legality” scholarship. The pupils Anya, Nicole, Paola and Francesca from the second B class of the Sersale high school won with a drawing representing a scale, an absolute symbol of balance between good and evil, legality and illegality: the right heart is the healthy one.
Even the other artistic works, supervised by teachers Rita Bressi and Anna Bracciorosso, stole the gaze of onlookers for the concepts conveyed through images.
Moral: legality is not a taboo topic in the social context of Sersale.
