COSENZA How difficult it is to hold back tears: «As a Calabrian I am proud of having returned to my land and managed to create my own business with my own strength, thanks to the tools provided by law and not for having asked someone for a favor. For a girl from the south it is not a trivial matter, in fact it is essential not to ask anyone for anything.” After graduating in Pisa, Irene Grillea (in the picture) returned to Trebisacce to deal with hearing rehabilitation for a company in Puglia. Thanks to Resto al Sud you took the big step: setting up on your own and dedicating yourself to prosthetics for hearing-impaired patients starting from your territory, the Alto Jonio Cosentino. Her story is one of the success stories told during the stage Giro d’Italia dedicated to female entrepreneurship that Unioncamere has been bringing throughout the country for 14 years (this is the second time in Cosenza, the first at the Chamber of Commerce in via Calabria was 6 years ago).
Irene, Veronica and the records of the province of Cosenza: companies listed above the national average
In being moved, Grillea moves the audience made up almost entirely of women, then the applause starts. «The clarity of the notice, the availability on the part of Invitalia and the Cosenza Chamber of Commerce (accredited body, ed), respect for deadlines and the trust of the companies with which it was enough to appoint Invitalia to provide security, and then punctuality in deadlines” adds Grillea, who submitted the application in December 2022 and on 31 December 2023 greeted the year with a cake to be cut at the entrance to his dream which had come true two months earlier: a center to treat those with hearing problems.
Her story – like that of the 27 year old Veronica Rossiborn in Rome to a Capitoline mother and Calabrian father but today in Trebisacce to open her graphics, communication and marketing agency – is one of the many that can be classified under female entrepreneurship and it has no coincidence comes from the province of Cosenza, the most virtuous territory in the region: a “driving force”, it has been said, for the economy of the whole of Calabria. «The clarity of the notice was of great help to me, the availability of Invitalia and the Cosenza Chamber of Commerce, respect for deadlines and the trust of the companies with which it was enough to appoint Invitalia to provide security, and then punctuality in deadlines” adds Grillea, who submitted the application in December 2022 and on 31 December 2023 greeted the year with a cake to cut at the entrance to his dream which had come true two months earlier: a center to treat those with hearing problems.
Cosentino excels in all indicators: resilience, productivity, youth enterprises, innovation and STEM degrees (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), while in addition to the capital, the centers with the greatest concentration of pink companies are Paola, Amantea, Scalea, San Giovanni in Fiore, Belvedere Marittimo and Montalto Uffugo.
“Microcredit” to free oneself from violence: one of the two Italian projects in Cosenza
Anna Gallopresident of the Female Entrepreneurship Committee of the Cosenza Chamber of Commerce, opens the proceedings with a chiaroscuro figure: «In Italy 22.2% of the businesses registered with the Chamber of Commerce are female, and the province of Cosenza with its 23.6% is above average: yet there are regions in the south that are even more virtuous, at 37%. However, if that national percentage reached 60%, our GDP would increase by 7%. Because it is clear – added Gallo – that we are not only faced with a question of gender equality but also an economic one: and often income is a tool to escape from the spiral of economic violence that cages so many women.” In cascade, the problem also concerns the fight against depopulation: “Just look at another fact – he comments -, in richer regions more children are born”. Gallo reports another record for Cosentino: one of the two Freedom Microcredit projects, a government incentive dedicated to victims of violence (up to 50 thousand euros to start business activities), comes from our province. «But – concludes President Gallo – more generally we need a Plan for female entrepreneurship». She echoes her Erminia Giornogeneral secretary of the Chamber of Commerce Cosenza and of Unioncamere Calabria: «We want to be present on the boards of directors not because we have quotas for women but because we are good and to achieve this we need to strengthen welfare in support of women and mothers, so that it doesn’t seem like a concession».
And the Employment Center leads by example: 70 women out of 87 employees
Also Tiziana Pompeiideputy national secretary of Unioncamere, underlines the positive anomaly of Cosentino, with a 0.9% increase in female businesses where the norm is for them to decrease, in addition to the fact of the large incidence of STEM graduates, thanks to the presence of Unical, with notable repercussions on the digitalisation of companies. «In Italy one in 4 women does not work and in the south this figure doubles – adds Pompei –, in Calabria 46.2% do not work and here too there is a lot of undeclared work. A stimulus may come from Certification of Gender Equality which will provide SMEs, not just female ones who perhaps don’t need it, a tool for visibility, credibility and reputation. The first tranche of 4 million from Pnrr funds is already ready, by the deadline of 28 March 1700 applications were received, the tender for the remaining 4 million will soon open”.
Then there is the women’s bonus (in the Cohesion decree) but second Giovanni Cuconato, head of the Cosenza Employment Centre, «welfare and contributions are not enough, we need services and infrastructures». Cuconato also speaks with a certain emotion (“I was a shop boy in the bar opposite – he says – while I was studying to be an industrialist”) and presents the experience from his observatory located in one of the largest provinces in Italy, with offices seconded to San Giovanni in Fiore, Castrovillari, Rogliano and right Crati: «Today here we are giving a good example of active labor policies, as they were conceived in 2000 when the employment offices were closed». Then he reports that «there is a lack of qualified figures in the catering sector», women be warned. Meanwhile, the Cosenza Employment Center is setting a good example: «In the office I manage, out of 87 employees, 70 are women», he says. “That’s why it works!” comments someone from the audience of female entrepreneurs. ([email protected])
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