Antonio Maiorinofrom Potenza, a nurse fleeing from the stress of Rome who already dreams of “setting up a community nursing service, and in the meantime I am fascinated by the life stories of the people who live here”,Ludovico D’Amatofrom nearby Sulmona, student in Bologna, committed to “writing a thesis on energy communities, with the need to escape the dynamics of cities”,Guglielmo Ficola from Perugia, a recent graduate in anthropology, convinced “by the opportunities for increasing knowledge in the field, and in a beautiful and hospitable land”,Andrea Testaoriginally from Chieti, arrived here “with the intention of staying, and I ask you to help me understand the best way to do it”.Valentina Giachetto Raterfrom the province of Turin, driven by the desire “to refine and increase professional community activation skills”.Antonella Vitzmannfrom Friuli, who “loves small towns because they have great potential”,
This is how the winners of the Neo competition, organised byHubruzzo Responsible Industry FoundationAndMim.
The new inhabitants will live in the Subequana valley for six months, hosted in the municipalities of Acciano, Castel di Ieri, Castelvecchio Subequo, Fontecchio, Goriano Sicoli, Molina Aterno, Secinaro, Tione degli Abruzzi and Gagliano Aterno, where the project was born two years ago, this year
Present at the initiative, in addition to the mayors of the nine municipalities,Raimondo Castelluccigeneral director of the Hubruzzo Foundation,Vittorio Alvinoof Open Polis, Raffaello Ficohead of the Special Office for Reconstruction,Raphael SpadanoMountains in motion.
The journalist moderatedGermana D’Orazio.
After a first month of settling in, the girls and boys of Neo will be engaged in social and community activities in the municipalities involved, and in advanced training courses with national level teaching, creation of questionnaires related to the topic of living and needs.
The mayor of Gagliano Aterno Luca Santilli will do the honors:“Three years ago in this square, with the Returning to the Future project, a path began which now, but the ground was already fertile thanks to the inhabitants, to the active associations, then through participation, punctuated by over 60 assemblies, and the involvement of competent people The Neo project started in 2022, with 28 applications and other skills, with people who wanted to come and live here, and this thrilled us, we had confirmation that these countries are not destined to die at all. In these two years there has been a great exchange of knowledge and human relationships. If we do not build new forms of living, our countries are destined to depopulate, we need to reactivate the community”.
Raimondo Castellucci then took the floor:“We are a particular foundation, not banking and not family, but created by ten Abruzzo companies, which support projects that are not imposed from above, of co-planning, and which are sustainable over time and ‘scalable’, which arrive at the moments in which which a project expands, intercepts new interests, as has now happened with as many as 9 Municipalities with the Openpolis foundation, and the Special Office for Reconstruction”.
For Open Polis, Alvino highlighted that,“our contribution is to bring the method of collecting evidence into Neo, because with the data you can have greater awareness of the territory and the processes that cross and modify it, with particular attention to the theme of living, that is, empty and uninhabited houses . Here with a particularity, that of post-seismic reconstruction, an opportunity that can become a waste if the homes remain unused, despite the large use of public resources”.
Raffaello Fico said: “The Usrc will have to deal for many more years with the physical post-seismic reconstruction of public and private buildings, which would make no sense if we cannot repopulate these wonderful villages, use the first and second homes, so beautiful and above all seismically safe. We are at the government table to discuss the use of Restart funds for projects that are precisely in the wake of the Neo project, which has opened a path here. Yesterday we opened the path of Celestino, also this example of social, immaterial and cultural reconstruction, and there too, as in the Neo project, the ability of the mayors to network was decisive”.
