“My name is Mario and I’m flooded.” The self-listening groups were among the areas of intervention that the diocesan Caritas of Faenza-Modigliana implemented after the drama of last May in terms of psychological assistance. “We immediately realized that, among the many needs – explains the Caritas staff – the people most affected by the flood needed to talk about what they had suffered, the difficulties they were facing”. This is also why the organisation, which deals with solidarity, has made available an online questionnaire aimed at flood victims, which has had a response beyond all expectations.
“More than five hundred people from Faenza answered our questions and shared their confidences – explains Maria Chiara Lama – regarding living, savings, the possible loss of the car, but also how the summer was spent 2023, what were the conditions of more fragile subjects such as children and grandparents. To get to the problems resulting from anxiety or sleep disorders”. The answers given by those half thousand people from Faenza depict a social as well as individual hardship, which often goes beyond the ability of Caritas and other entities to intervene: “Many, for example, wonder if a new flood will arrive, others are worried in some ways even self-convinced.” To present the investigation, two public meetings were organised, scheduled for Monday 27 May at 10am and a repeat at 8.30pm in the main hall of the ‘Pio XII’ seminar in via degli Insorti 12 in Faenza. After the introduction by Bishop Mario Toso, the director of Caritas Don Marco Pagniello and the municipal councilor for Welfare of Faenza, Davide Agresti, will speak.
In the meantime, the diocesan Caritas continues the delivery of materials for flood victims in the area: “The ad hoc center is basically still open – explains Claudio Violani –. We are still distributing furniture and household appliances to those who do not yet have their homes ready. As everyone knows , there are still 500 families who have not returned to their homes”. In total, more than 250 appliances have already been delivered. Caritas was also active in terms of direct aid: around 400 families were supported with donations of between 500 and 2000 euros, based on how much they had lost. Thanks to an agreement with the BCC, a project aimed at microcredit was completed which allowed loans of up to five thousand euros, repayable in installments of 100 euros per month at a rate of 3.75%. The agreement provides for the possibility of a loan for around twenty families, for each of the five dioceses affected by the flood: Faenza, Ravenna, Imola, Forlì and Cesena.
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