L’Ippogrifo’s active citizenship project with unaccompanied foreign minors starts from San Lazzaro. A day of work in the green area of via Lusardi in San Lazzaro for a group of young users of the reception program for unaccompanied foreign minors which the social cooperative L’Ippogrifo manages, entrusted by the Municipality of Piacenza, at the Petit Hotel.
Eight guys they were busy in the morning, nine in the afternoon, cleaning the playground and the public garden in the heart of the neighborhood, as well as the embankment that runs along the overpass that leads to the cemetery.
Active citizenship and care for the environment
The initiative, postponed to today due to bad weather, was scheduled for Monday 22 April, to celebrate “in a concrete way – explains the president of L’Ippogrifo Davide Tacchini – theEarth DayEarth Day: from the idea, fundamental and valid beyond any linguistic and geographical barrier, of taking care of the Planet, to the concept of active citizenship which we intend to increasingly enhance as a common thread in the initiatives we propose to young people, alongside to the educational and training activities in which they are already involved”.
Under the aegis of the coordinator Gualtiero Ranza and the cultural mediator Afraa el-Idrissi, the group – made up of young people of Egyptian, Pakistani, Algerian and Tunisian nationality – collected rubbish, cleaned stairways and shared spaces.
Councilor Corvi: “Reciprocity and sense of belonging”
“The municipal administration – underlines the councilor for Social Inclusion Nicoletta Corvi – has received and enthusiastically followed this proposal from L’Ippogrifo. This, in fact, is the first stage of a process of empowerment which we consider very significant because it is based on reciprocity, on the construction of a sense of belonging and respect which, for the unaccompanied minors who find welcome and support in Piacenza, also involves the ‘establish a relationship with your destination city. The initial step concerned, as was natural, the neighborhood in which they are hosted, but in agreement with L’Ippogrifo, whom I thank for the precious work it carries out, we will identify other areas in which they can lend a hand in maintaining the urban decorum”.
During the morning there was also a wish for good work from the owner of a nearby shop, who wanted to take the opportunity for a selfie with the kids and for encouragement in contributing to making some areas of the city better.
