The Palestinians who came with medical evacuations are in limbo. Local associations and realities have organized themselves to provide help. Beyond the propaganda of government, the gaps in the reception are many
It was October 12, 2024 and in the Katia Bertasi neighborhood the Bologna network for Gaza organized the first Saturday of community. “We were still a few volunteers, we opened the space for the Gazawi families who started hugging and greeting themselves, children to get to know each other and play together.” To speak is Greta Caruso, coordinator and spokesman for the network. From that moment on, a path started that has not stopped and every Saturday the volunteers carry on artistic and cultural projects.
The families welcomed in the neighborhood house are part of the first nuclei arrived in Bologna by Gaza for health reasons. “From December onwards the reception flows have changed and now we have 110 Palestinians,” explains Caruso. According to Farnesina, Italy has hospitalized 150 Gazawi in healthcare facilities – of which 133 children – and welcomed the related families, over 450 people. Despite the narrative of the foreign minister Antonio Tajani on the commitment of the government for injured civilians, after the hospital care, those who come to Italy find themselves in a limbo made of bureaucracy, legislative voids and a reception not adequate to those who come from a war scenario. It is the informal networks of civil society that fill the gaps of institutions in different cities.
Treatment practices
In Bologna by five volunteers today are more than 200 people who are part of the network. With the help of the health workers for Gaza, they managed to cover the expenses for the prostheses of several children and to start the path to the Sai, the widespread reception system. “Because some families with mutilated children have not had a place for a year,” says Caruso, and many offered their homes. The volunteers made themselves available to mediate with the institutions, to provide aid and legal support. “A network of people who offered concrete help has come forward,” says the volunteer.
A mediation work also with the cooperatives that manage the reception to “guarantee their self -determination as quickly as possible”. But to get to this a graduality is essential: «There are many traumas, we have witnessed attempted suicides and many say that it would have been better to die in Gaza. They tell us: “We have not chosen to come to Italy. We are grateful, but we were forced to leave our land”, “says Caruso.
Conflict and loss are strong, they suffer from sleep disorders, memory problems, “a pain so great that – says the activist – it was important to try to give them a space that was for them and that’s it”. The people welcomed in Italy have expressed the desire to reconstruct a wounded fabric. “We are trying to do a job that goes towards the care practices that is based on listening, non -judgment and non -violent communication, but above all on this deconstruction that asks us for a wound of war that we must all face in the most collective way possible”, underlines Caruso.
For this, the network has promoted a dialogue with the institutions, with weekly connection meetings in which several subjects participate. A model to which other realities also look throughout the country. The more material assistance is added activities such as the after school or music therapy. And a fundraiser allows you to respond to needs.
From Milan to Naples
Informal solidarity is present from North to South. In Naples, a network of volunteers whose Maria Anna Catalano, a teacher from Casertano, has organized herself independently to support a Gazawi family made up of a mother and four children. «There are structural shortcomings in the reception system. We tried to fill these gaps, “says Catalano, who adds:” They were lucky to find themselves in a virtuous reception center “.
«If families are not entrusted to a CAS with sensitive and competent staff there is chaos. There come into play activists, collectives and associations », says Glores Sandri instead. Profession does the doulaThat is, it provides assistance to women and families during pregnancy, labor and postponement. Today it is part of a collective of activists who supports the welcome of the Gazawi arrived in Milan. But in these 20 months of war has already carried out medical-health and education projects in the strip. “Families are close and we struggle to raise funds and provide support,” he says. Together with other activists he ensures cultural mediation services, accompanies families during hospital check-ups, and offers food and clothes. “When they arrive in Italy they have nothing, the IDF empty them of everything before evacuations,” he explains.
And when they arrive in Italy, hundreds of people are faced with an unimaginable situation. «There are those who in 18 months were churned out several times, they lived in tent and hospitals after the destruction of their homes. He arrives in Italy and the first thing they receive are the modules to make the request for political asylum, otherwise they find themselves on the street. This is yet another evacuation order, “explains Sandri. Many want to return to Gaza after medical care: “They know that with political asylum it is more difficult”.
The problems are many and the CAS do not provide the necessary services. Psychological support, for example, is not up to need: “In Islam, psychological therapy is different. It focuses on faith, on the strength of the community, not on individualism as in western culture “.
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