Digital Facilitation Month: the story of Giulia and Gaetano
Sometimes human contact is already an important support in reducing the distance that separates people from technology. Mauro Seria, our facilitator, is convinced of this as he tells the story of Gaetano, a gentleman who lives near the Olympic Village, a stone's throw from the Santa Cecilia Auditorium, who a few days ago went to the II Municipio, located in Piazza Grecia. Gaetano needed to activate his electronic identity card (CIE) after losing his PIN and PUK, codes that are essential for using many important online services.
‘Can you even access the Prima Porta cemetery with these?’ joked Mr Gaetano when he discovered, together with facilitator Mauro, how to use the electronic identity card once he had obtained new access codes. ‘He was really excited to be able to access the INPS portal and didn't think he could do it on his own... supporting him at the digital point was important in restoring his confidence in new technologies. Seeing the expression on these people's faces when they light up because they finally get what they came for fills my heart and gives me a measure of how important my work is.’
‘Digital technology is something very far removed from me! Luckily, I'm retired and don't have to use it at work,’ said Mrs Giulia, who worked for many years in a government agency. But then she is forced to admit that it is thanks to her smartphone that she can stay in touch all day with her husband, who is severely disabled and lives in a nursing home, and with her son, an engineer who is always abroad for work. She was recently the victim of a scam when, while parked in her car, she was approached by someone asking for information but was then tricked by the “accomplice” while responding to the request. “I lost all my documents, I struggled to request them and today I finally got them,” she explained. “Thanks also to the facilitation service, I got an appointment at the VII Town Hall and today I am taking the final step, activating my Cie”. Giulia is not yet completely independent because she asks her son for help by phone to access the code that arrived by email, but from today she has one more tool to look forward to the benefits of technology with confidence.
The “month of digital facilitation” is an initiative involving the municipalities of Rome Capital, providing digital assistance and training for citizens throughout November. The digital facilitators, coordinated by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, are available from Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., in five municipalities per week.
In the second week of Digital Facilitation Month, from 10 to 14 November, the centres operating in the municipalities are as follows:
- Municipality XII in Via Fabiola 14
- Municipality XV in Via Enrico Bassano, 10
- Municipality XI in Via Portuense, 579
- Municipality XIII in Via Aurelia, 470
- Municipality XIV in Piazza S. Maria della Pietà, 5
Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Citizens can freely go to their local municipality to receive personalised support from the digital facilitators of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, who are ready to accompany them step by step in the use of online public services.
The story is by Onelia Onorati, press office of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. 
