RAVENNA: The Ravenna-Belarus voluntary association celebrates another goal achieved: the donation of a digital hypno-sedation device to the pediatrics department of the Ravenna hospital. The gesture, explains a note from the ASL, «represents an act of solidarity and, above all, an act of restitution with respect to this Operational Unit which, over the years, has always responded by making its own the health needs of Belarusian children that the Association has welcomed free of charge in recent years in families or in local structures with stay projects for recovery from the effects of the Chernobyl catastrophe”.
Ravenna-Belarus has been working for years in welcoming Belarusian children and young people and in international solidarity volunteering in their country. After the Chernobyl accident in 1999, a group of families in the Ravenna area did not remain indifferent to the effects caused by the nuclear disaster and decided to “take care” of the suffering of the little ones, who represented the most exposed and fragile part of the population. From that moment on, the families who joined the project have become points of reference with a common goal: to undertake a journey of “good life” together with their little guests. With the help of psychologists and social workers and through continuous training of the families, the historical memory and socio-cultural identity of each child/adolescent involved were enhanced.
The stays of the Belarusian children welcomed in Ravenna have never been just holidays but also training, job orientation, workshops, courses and internships. Many projects and activities (workshops, assistance for children with chronic pathologies, support for families) have also been carried out directly in Belarus.
The current political contingencies and the drama of war make it difficult at this time to carry forward new cooperation projects and complete those already underway. In recent years, the Association has been taking care of other difficult situations: in Syria during the earthquake, in Ukraine by sending humanitarian aid and in Ravenna to support families hosted in the city, as well as in the Romagna area during the flood of last year.
Taking into account this solidarity path, Ravenna-Belarus has decided to donate the digital viewer for the sedation of children and adolescents; this gift in fact has a precise analogy and relationship with the experience of these years of “gift for the good of children’s lives”.
The donation took place in the presence of the Director of Pediatrics of Ravenna, Dr. Federico Marchetti, of the President of the Ravenna-Belarus Association, Dr. Giuseppina Torricelli, of the Prefect of Ravenna, Dr. Castrese De Rosa, the Deputy Mayor of the Municipality of Ravenna, the Councilor for Social Policies of the Municipality of Ravenna, the Management of the Ravenna Hospital, the medical and nursing team of the department and some volunteers of the Association.
«The audio visual system (Hypno VR) that was donated – underlined Dr. Marchetti – is a significant step forward to achieve the goal of reducing as much as possible the negative emotions that arise from invasive maneuvers.” The system immerses children and adolescents in a hypnotic sound and visual environment: music, texts, images and voices alternate and overlap, allowing them to stimulate the senses, to concentrate on the positive resolution of what is occurring during painful or potentially potentially determine an unpleasant memory.
