Sports are a right for everyone, but it’s equally important to ensure that those who participate can do so safely, with access to mandatory medical check-ups.
For this reason, alongside the launch of social inclusion activities and efforts to combat educational poverty, which we have been promoting in the ‘Kalsa’ neighborhood for nearly ten years, we enabled forty children and teenagers we work with to undergo mandatory medical check-ups at our Association’s headquarters.
Da diversi anni, grazie al sostegno dei fondi dell’8×1000 della Tavola Valdese, riusciamo a offrire questa possibilità a tante famiglie della Kalsa, molte delle quali in condizioni di difficoltà economica, per permettere un monitoraggio delle condizioni fisiche dei giovani con cui facciamo attività e agevolare quindi l’accesso al diritto alla salute.
A healthcare service close to the community, providing a concrete response to a need often ignored, in a neighborhood that faces severe marginalization daily.
We firmly believe that to bring about a decisive shift in overcoming deviance and organized crime, politics must invest in the areas of Palermo most affected by poverty and neglect, where fundamental rights such as housing, work, and health remain a distant dream for many.
Without work, without a roof to live under, with access to healthcare dwindling for many, and an increasing school dropout rate, criminal activity and widespread illegality are bound to persist.
It is not enough to rely solely on the work of magistrates and law enforcement, we must present an economic and social alternative to Cosa Nostra. based on fundamental rights, so that organized crime and widespread illegality do not remain one of the main social safety nets people turn to in order to ensure their survival.”
We believe it is not enough to support shopkeepers and entrepreneurs in reporting extortion if, at the same time, strategies and interventions are not aimed at removing the conditions of degradation and poverty that fuel deviant behavior and widespread illegality. For this reason, since 2015, in the Kalsa district of Palermo, where Addiopizzo is based, the association has been working with children and families living in social and economic marginalization, helping them access fundamental rights such as health, education, work, and housing.
What Addiopizzo do in Kalsa
Support programs for schoolchildren are offered at the association’s headquarters, a property confiscated from the Mafia, which has also become a place for medical visits. During the pandemic, it was transformed into a vaccination hub, allowing hundreds of people who would otherwise have had no access to such an opportunity to be vaccinated. Moments of sports inclusion, in collaboration with Vivisano, are organized in the neighborhood to steer young people away from the temptation of wrong paths. Urban regeneration and exploration interventions reflect the need and desire to change perspectives, to go beyond the boundaries of the neighborhood, which is a source of joy and pride, but can sometimes become a maze with no way out for the young people who grow up in Kalsa and find themselves having to cope with neglect and abandonment in this place
Kalsa remains a place full of potential, but it is also one of the neighborhoods where the lack of job opportunities remains one of the most serious issues. For this reason, we also aim to create pathways for the employment of young people who live in Kalsa, allowing them to learn a trade at businesses and companies within the Addiopizzo network
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Press review
Giornale di Sicilia – Kalsa, sport is legality. Medical checkups for kids
la Repubblica – Palermo, Addiopizzo organizza visite mediche gratuite per i bambini della Kalsa
LiveSicilia – Palermo, Addiopizzo: visite mediche gratuite per i bambini della Kalsa
PalermoToday – L’inclusione contro il degrado: visite mediche gratuite per 40 tra bambini e ragazzi della Kalsa
IInitiative supported by the Otto per Mille funds of the Waldensian Church
