The Italian World IBD week: #AMICIaDISTANZA, promoted by the Amici onlus Association is coming to an end. It has been a week (May 13-19) full of on-line appointments and live streaming from a range of platforms (Youtube, Facebook, Twitter) to prepare for today: World IBD Day.
This year, together with Project Factor J and the Amici Association, we would like to underline the value of World IBD Day 2020 to increase social awareness on these diseases and improve the life quality of patients.
The National Italian Association for Chronic Inflammatory Intestinal Disease (Amici) brings together individuals suffering from ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease and their relatives. The association provides support, funds research and safeguards the rights of patients, as well as providing legal and psychological assistance and acting as an intermediary with institutions.
Chronic inflammatory diseases of the intestine are invisible and can have serious consequences on the lives of those suffering from them. These diseases are diagnosed in adolescents, young adults and increasingly in children, too. In Italy, they affect ca. 250,000 individuals.
IBD diseases make “your body feel like a limit to your life” and cause isolation and difficulty in relationships. This is why the support network is fundamental,” explains Noemi Fiumanò, 24, educator, volunteer and media manager at Amici onlus.
In this interview with Cecilia Stajano[@CStajano], School Innovation and Community Manager at the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, Noemi explains the disease simply, clearly, directly and precisely. Her words project the objectives of Project Factor J: "Empathy means overcoming our ego, our being, and trying to understand how others are living. Physical and emotional proximity brings comfort. This does not mean we must understand exactly what others are feeling, but being able to listen, to be there and to offer the resources we are capable of providing. It means sharing.”
Factor J webinars held by Amici onlus will start at the beginning of the new school year. Together, we will understand how students affected by IBD live and how their peers can help them to live a normal and serene life through empathy to fight exclusion and discrimination.
Factor J, promoted by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale and Janssen Italia, is the first curriculum developed for Italian schools to educate young men and women to develop emotional intelligence, respect and empathy towards those in serious situations or suffering from pathologies. This is an important social operation to stimulate a cultural change in health mentality, starting from the younger generations.
