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Monthly Newsletter edited by Cittadinanzattiva-Active Citizenship Network
Civic Activism | Patients' Rights | Consumers' Rights | Support ACN
Year 8th, number 78 - March 2020

SPECIAL EDITION ON OUR COMMITMENT TO FIGHT CORONAVIRUS IN ITALY

Highlight

Coronavirus: citizens and civil society are key to correct information
In this period of objective difficulty, the role that active citizenship can take is fundamental to give the signal that in Italy there is more, and that the population is enormously richer in awareness and civil sense than Italian themselves assumed. We know we don't live in a perfect world, there are citizens who convey fake news, but also socially responsible citizens. During the current Coronavirus crisis, for example, active citizens can be producers of social information. Civic information touches everyday reality and does not concern only impressions. Making civic information means aggregating, creating networks and alliances, having a clear will to change things. Therefore, the role of active citizens and groups that promote active citizenship is important. For this reason, as Cittadinanzattiva we decided to network with general practitioners, to open a webpage on our website, to make our offices available for all citizens who want to receive or give information. In this way, we believe to play a useful role from at least two points of view: first, we produce daily civic information and data. Afterwards, we use this knowledge to do activities and to promote politics that connect interlocutors and improve things.
Because if information is sustaining a political view, which is aimed to change things, it becomes an extraordinary aggregation tool. Not only of citizens as such, but also of social and economic actors that decide to take a common path, because they consider possible that things can be changed. We are convinced that civic networks can play a great role as they are in contact with the people and their reality. For this reason, the role of civil and active society is to connect institutions and communities: in times of coronavirus, where institutional communication does not arrive, civil society arrives. Read more

Antonio Gaudioso, Secretary General at Cittadinanzattiva APS

Focus

#KeepCalm
“Together without fear. Coronavirus is a weak enemy if we fight it together. Family doctors and citizens". This is the message of the social campaign of the Italian Federation of General Practitioners-FIMMG (Federazione Italiana Medici di Medicina Generale) and Cittadinanzattiva to inform citizens about the right prevention behaviors to follow and to promote common sense and make it "viral". #insiemesenzapaura. To know more, watch the video and click here (IT) 


 

News
Patients' Rights

Italian cities join the General Practitioners and Cittadinanzattiva campaign
In a short time, the social media campaign launched by FIMMG and Cittadinanzattiva has been supported and endorsed by many private and public actors. Here you can find the example of the City of Naples that had adopted the campaign. To know more, click here (IT).

#Coronavirus & Advocacy activity for chronic patients
The Italian Medicines Agency (AIFA) welcome and agree with the proposal launched a few days ago by the Italian Scientific Society of Internal Medicine (FADOI) and Cittadinanzattiva to extend for the next 3 months the validity of the therapeutic plans created by specialists. Without this plan, 10 million of chronic patients would have remained without life-saving medicines. In addition to saving time for doctors involved in emergency management, this measure will prevent many patients, especially the elderly, from crowding out waiting rooms and clinics. To know more, read the official request, the press release, the AIFA’s decision and an article (all only in IT version)

#Coronavirus & Corporate Social Responsibility
Cittadinanzattiva actively supports general practitioners and pharmacists facilitating, thanks to the network of private companies with which it collaborates, the supply of the sanitary devices (masks, disinfectant gels, protective glasses) which they do not currently have. Here you can find a concrete valuable example.

#Coronavirus & Virtual assistant
The Cittadinanzattiva website hosts the virtual assistant DESI*, ready to help by answering questions about the Coronavirus emergency. Visit the website https://bit.ly/2IWEIAt.
* Created and offered as a donation by Kinoa

#Coronavirus & FAQ

It is a priority to be properly informed against the spread of the virus. On our website you can find useful information for citizens, regional and national measures, guides and videos of experts, as well as a FAQ section with the answers to the most frequently asked questions about health, transport, public exercises, school and tourism, taxation, taxes and much more. To know more, click here

#Coronavirus & Fake news/Scams
Cittadinanzattiva is daily committed to the protection of rights. Citizens who have come across scams and speculations, such as that of fake health workers who come to their homes to subject people to tampons, to offer masks and sanitizing gels whose prices have skyrocketed, can write to coronavirus@cittadinanzattiva.it.

#Coronavirus & Local assistance
In Lombardy, Emilia Romagna and Piedmont, the areas most affected by the outbreaks of the infection, the regional offices of Cittadinanzattiva are available to citizens with the following numbers and opening hours. Moreover, our protection centers are available for the other regions. You can find your nearest office here https://bit.ly/2v9APot

#Coronavirus & fund raising for general practitioners’ safety
On the 16 of March 2020, Cittadinanzattiva launches - with the Italian Federation of General Practitioners-FIMMG (Federazione Italiana Medici di Medicina Generale) - the fundraising “Help us protect your family doctor”: with only 1 Euro you can help us purchase personal protective equipment to be distributed to all the family doctors working in Italy. We need you! Donate now! https://bit.ly/2x37tbD

LOOKING THROUGH THE WINDOW

Italy honors its doctors with midday applause
Italians got to their balconies at midday to honor their doctors, nurses and healthcare workers fighting the country's Coronavirus emergency. Read more (EN)

Singing from the balcony: life in lockdown Italy
People across Italy have been singing from their balconies in an effort to keep up morale as the country faces the worst coronavirus outbreak outside China. Italy’s 60 million citizens were placed under lockdown to halt the spread of a virus that has so far claimed over 1.800 lives in the country. Read more and see the video

Italy's star virologist: All Europe must hunker down against Covid-19
In Italy, Roberto Burioni was one of the first scientists to sound the alarm about the coronavirus outbreak, but his messages went unheeded at first. Read more

Signs of support towards the Italian people
The Sarajevo City Hall, in the building of the historical Sarajevo's Library, was lit in the colors of the Italian flag as a sign of support on 14th March in the evening. The Sarajevo municipality added also a statement. Furthermore, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv have also both shown solidarity with Italy, which recorded a staggering 368 deaths from the coronavirus only on Sunday 15th of March. Read more (EN)

  

We're all Italians
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday 11th March 2020 published a video message in Italian saying "At this moment in Europe we are all Italians". Read more and watch the video

 

 


Everything will be all right: Italy's message of hope

#iorestoacasa

 


Director and Editor in chief: Mariano Votta
Editors: Daniela Quaggia, Federico Foti e Riccardo Schwarz
Coordination and Production: Giacomo D'Orazio 

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