There are now two hundred families helped by the Immaculate Conception. The appeal of the association: we need medicines, help us
BELLUNO. Over 350 people have been taken care of by the Pharmacy dell’immacolata in via San Gervasio, 15-20% more than last year. The pandemic, in fact, has caused the numbers of people assisted by the service set up in 2014 to rise under the pressure of the late Don Gigi Vian. But precisely because of the pandemic, drug collections have been limited and a shortage of medicines is already beginning to be felt.
The numbers
«In practically a year we have reached 200 families. About twenty families have been added, that is over 50 people to assist and support ”, says Giorgio Corradini d’Elia, pharmacist who, together with his wife Serena Rover, manage the Pharmacy of the poor.
«For the most part, those we follow are Italian citizens, while a good portion are of foreign origin but have now resided here for two generations. These come some from North Africa, some from Albania, some from Central America. These are young families with one or two children, but also large families, but also lonely people who come from difficult paths such as addiction to alcohol, drugs, who live in situations of fragility, isolation, loneliness. Some also have psychiatric problems. All these are followed by us in collaboration with the Serd or with social services. But we also follow elderly people ».
For Corradini d’Elia, the pandemic has made the territory more fragile. «We follow 25-30 families a week, to whom we bring through our riders what they need. But this does not account for the increase in the isolation and loneliness of many people as well. With these we try to compensate, given the pandemic situation and to protect our volunteers – because safety comes first – with telephone support, waiting to be able to reopen the doors of our pharmacy in San Gervasio, closed for a year now and half”.
Delivery of products
Corradini d’Elia together with his wife meet every Saturday, however, in the center, to prepare the packages and products that are needed for people in difficulty. “During the week we collect requests and then on Saturday morning we organize what is needed and then through our volunteers we distribute them to families who are in crisis”.
Delivery, precisely by virtue of respect for safety, takes place in a collective form. “That is to say that we are on fixed days, for example in Ponte nelle Alpi for deliveries also to those who live in Alpago or to the Longaronese-Zoldano-Cadore area, while on the left Piave we take care of those who live there but also of those who are in the Feltrino ».
There are therefore collection points from which the products are distributed », says the pharmacist. Products ranging from over-the-counter medicines to products for children up to those for personal and home hygiene, from health equipment (comfortable, braces, orthopedic surgical medical devices) to eyeglasses. The latter activity started last year. “We launch an appeal”, says Corradini d’Elia, “to all those who can support the pharmacy business with donations of products or money”, says the contact person of the Immaculate Conception pharmacy who reports that he has obtained a substantial donation of over-the-counter drugs from a Belluno association: about 200 medicines, which for us are fundamental in this moment in which requests are increasing ».
Medicines and dentists alarm
The referent underlines how the products collected with the campaigns launched both with the Pharmaceutical Bank and with the Rava foundation are already exhausted: also in this case the Coronavirus was influencing, which prevented us from collecting the quantities of past editions that were used to support our activity for a whole year. Now we are in difficulty so we ask for help from all those who want to support us. Several retirees bring us some offers, but also young people have given us part of their salary and some graduates have given us some gifts they have received: they are precious gestures for those in need “, concludes Corradini who also asks for help from the dentists of the province to make available a few hours of their time free of charge to treat those in difficulty. –
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