Community Day, the University Overflows into the Neighborhood in the Name of Solidarity
Some distributed food rations to the needy for Pane quotidiano, some assisted the elderly and mentally disabled at Amici del rifugio, some assisted mothers and children recently released from prison with Ciao - Un ponte tra carcere famiglia e territorio, some took care of culture at Associazione volontari del Museo diocesano and Touring club italiano, and many contributed to medical or psychological support with AVO – Associazione volontari ospedalieri, Croce Bianca Milano sezione Centro and Medici volontari italiani.
Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, 73 Bocconians (68 students, three professors and two employees) peacefully invaded the neighborhood for the Community Day, an initiative that has made them volunteers for a few hours in associations identified by the criterion of geographical proximity to the University, "with the idea of ​​giving something back to the neighborhood that hosts us", said the rector, Andrea Sironi.
Giovanni Desiderio, a student at the fourth year of Law, played the part of the victim in the motor accident simulated by Croce Bianca for the twenty Bocconi volunteers. "The Croce Bianca staff explained the procedures to the students and let them have a try. We also simulated a cardiac resuscitation with ventilation on a mannequin. Eventually some of us said they were willing to continue the experience more regularly and in five or six we stopped a while to better understand the activity. It was a good experience".
"I met great people", says Sabina Boffini, an employee at the Department of Marketing of the University who on Saturday distributed food rations in viale Toscana for Pane Quotidiano. "The volunteers were so open and warm that we did not feel any sadness. On Saturdays 2-3 thousand rations are distributed to people in need. There are also many Italians and you sense that in many cases they have established a certain degree of familiarity with the volunteers. Among these I was impressed by a 20-year Moroccan girl who finds time for this activity even if she works not only in the week, but also over the weekend".
The initiative was organized in collaboration with Ciessevi – Centro servizi per il volontariato città metropolitana di Milano and with the student association Students for Humanity, the two organizations that already work with the University to the Desk Volontariato. Ciessevi oversaw the selection of the associations, and Students for Humanity acted as a liaison with students. The president of the association, Marta Giuffrè, at the fourth year of Law, participated in the initiative at AVO with three other students and talked with patients of neurology and emergency surgery. "I feared to meet some resistance from patients and instead I felt that even the most reserved felt relieve. The activity is not seen as intrusive, apparently AVO has singled out a real need".
The 73 available places were assigned in chronological order, out of 157 requests. Ciessevi's Evelina Raimondi defines the Community Day "a taste of volunteering for the participants, an organizational effort for the associations, motivated by the desire to be known" and by the hope that in some cases the brief experience will be followed by an ongoing commitment. As it happened, for example, to Constanza Rigoni, a student who knew of Amici del rifugio via the Desk Volontariato and that last weekend coordinated the activities of Bocconi volunteer on behalf of the association: "I continue because I see that small gestures can give great satisfaction both to patients and to me", she says.