The first appointments with senior volunteers have just ended for the telephone help desks organised by Project Starting Back Up Together, developed in collaboration by the Lazzaro Spallanzani National Institute for Infectious Diseases (INMI), Regione Lazio and the Fondazione Mondo Digitale. Young men and women are working together with local medicine structures to ensure. The wellbeing and health of citizens aged 65 and over during the emergency. The project started out as a pilot in the ASL Roma 3 area to provide the community with the intergenerational learning model and the help of the Network of Knowledge Volunteers.
The lesson, which is based on three telephone meetings, has already allowed 12 senior volunteers to tutor 18 elders. Next week, the volunteers will move on to other citizens, after a meeting to perfect the strategy (next Wednesday).
Starting today high school students will also begin to provide help with the same model:
- Tuesday, March 9 | Liceo classico Giulio Cesare - Rome
- Thursday, March 11 | Collegio S. Giuseppe - Istituto de Merode - Rome
- Friday, March 19 | Liceo classico I. Kant - Rome
In total, 30 students will help 30 over-65s.
“There will be an initial meeting to understand the starting levels of the elders,” explains Eleonora Curatola, who is helping Cecilia Stajano [@CStajano] in the project coordination.
Lia Verso (21), who is studying computer science at the University of Rome will share a motivational message with the new volunteers. Lia will be tutoring three elders: Maria Teresa and a couple, Maria and Giuseppe, all of whom are over 80.
In a telephone conversation with Cecilia Stajano, School Innovation and Community Manager, Lia excitedly explains not only how important these telephone appointments have become, but how she feels like a “sponge” considering how much more she learns than she teaches.
Lia has no doubts about the young volunteers: “I am sure that they will be happy of conducting such a nice activity. I hope they have fun and will be able to coach and learn as much as I did.”
