Catozza: “We have started talking to each other again, to regain our spaces to rediscover the importance of forming a community”
MAIDA. Fifteen months of uninterrupted activities that ranged across multiple areas: from workshops for children to listening to adults in difficulty, from walks to discover the natural heritage of the local area to games in the square to savor the beauty of being together. More than positive results for the #PEP Project (Proximity educational hub – Model for the valorisation of territories and communities) created by the Calabria Odv Board of Directors, of which Graziella Catozza is president.
The results of the project process were illustrated during a meeting in the school library of the state comprehensive school of Maida: the protagonists of the training course met to give life to an empathetic restitution of what they learned and experienced thanks to the activities carried out in the past fifteen months. President Catozza herself gave an overview of the work carried out, focusing the project initiative on the concept of ‘remainder’, taking up the thoughts of anthropologist Vito Teti.
“The remainder – underlined the president of the Calabria Odv Board of Directors – is the valorisation of what we have, from the richness of nature to human resources. After the Covid pandemic which closed us in our homes, limiting and conditioning our lives, with the #PEP Project we went out again to regain our spaces but, above all, we started talking to each other again to regain our sense of community”.
“We focused on simplicity, on essentiality – commented Catozza – Among the many activities of the project also the presentation of ‘The Letter’, the video also promoted by the Pope for the protection of the environment, the defense of planet Earth; a philosophy of thought based on integral ecology which is also a defense for all humanity”.
The shared restitution has laid the foundations for possible future projects to be implemented in the area of the Municipalities of Monte Contessa (Maida, San Pietro Maida, Vena di Maida, Curinga, Polia, Philadelphia, Francavilla Angitola), the project’s action area. In this regard, a first ‘seed that will germinate’ thanks to the training course undertaken is the ‘path of peace’ which will be built in the area between Cortale and Philadelphia.
During the final meeting, the mayor of Jacurso, Ferdinando Serratore, who applauded the success of the project, reiterating that “when social commitment leads to tangible and positive results, one cannot help but be satisfied as there is a concrete impact on the needs and desires of the community. We need to invest in education, especially for the younger generations – insisted the mayor – These projects are commendable because they show that we must never abandon our dreams”.
Ludovica Zoccali, president of the Fidapa section of Maida-Vena, defined the project as “a great opportunity for dialogue and discussion, a chance for the creation of new programming aimed at enhancing the territory. The project-idea – argued Zoccali – meets the community-idea; it is our duty to animate educational centers to provide complete, integrated responses to the learning needs that come from below”.
“Remaining – continued the president of the club service – is the right to remain, it is a new home together with territorial rediscovery and sustainability. We must give life to our villages by living our identity.”
The meeting ended with the delivery of the certificate of participation to all those who took part in the project activities.
The project was financed by the “call for the provision of funding to voluntary organizations or social promotion associations involved in the Covid-19 emergency, based on the program agreement signed between the Ministry of Labor and Social Policies and the Calabria Region (pursuant to articles 72 and 73)”.
