The Silvia Bianchi 2022 Prize has been awarded to Ermanno Merolla, a 5th year medical student, and to the volunteers of the Vaccination Center coordinated by Gemma Napoli
"Give yourself joyfully by receiving more than you gave". The richness that a voluntary experience gives to those who live it comes back as a refrain in the testimonies of the many volunteers who have been involved for 12 years in support activities for the patients of the Campus Bio-Medico University Hospital and for the most fragile people in the area.
They are students, doctors, healthcare professionals or simply men and women who have chosen to dedicate their time and heart to those in difficulty, animated by a spirit of service which for the Campus Bio-Medico world is the foundation and engine for contributing to the good of society. And with their personal testimonies they have created a rich discussion during the workshop "There's room for you", promoted in the world volunteer day, on December 5, as an occasion for sharing and recognition for the commitment made.
"Sergio, 23 years old, was hospitalized for a long time at our Polyclinic due to a sarcoma - he says Ermanno Merolla, 5th year medical student and student volunteer coordinator – I used to visit him often, between one lesson and another, and I discovered that I shared a passion for X Factor. So I thought of organizing a little surprise for him with the help of the department staff: I brought the pizza and we watched the episode of the program together. Since that day, pizza and a TV show have become a fixed appointment on Thursday evenings".
A meeting, the one between Ermanno and Sergio, which marked the beginning of a friendship and made the drama of the disease more bearable. Why volunteering is standing by, being present sometimes even silently and opening a glimmer of light in a difficult moment. "I met Signora Giovanna, an elderly lady from Trigoria, through the parish priest – Ermanno continues – A single woman, in precarious conditions, enticed for many years by rheumatoid arthritis and with a difficult personal history. Yet, I have never seen a person with so much will to live and with such a deep faith. Visiting her was like a breath of fresh air for me. She had a great passion: poetry. And so, together with my volunteer colleagues, we collected her texts in a volume 'The most beautiful of the rose garden' which we published and sold to buy an orthopedic bed which gave her relief in the last period of her life".
The initiative to raise funds to support voluntary projects has not remained isolated. Just in these pre-Christmas days there is ancrowdfunding activity promoted by students to buy small surprises to give to patients admitted to the University Hospital.
But there is also another face of volunteering, the one linked to the difficult period of the pandemic, which has thrown everyone into a bubble of loneliness. At the Vaccination Center set up during the Covid emergency at the Elderly Health Center, the close-knit group of 15 senior volunteers* coordinated by Gemma Napoli has brought words of comfort and precious closeness, making itself available to welcome elderly people in particular, solving critical issues, actively collaborating with the health and administrative staff, organizing shifts and attendance.
A real "army of volunteers" who deserved to win, like Ermanno Merolla, the Silvia Bianchi Award 2022. An award named after a person who contributed to the birth ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and who in the last years of his life dedicated his time and energy to the patients of the University Hospital with great generosity and dedication.
* Antonio Altobelli, Roberta Bianchi, Grazia Carletti, Claudio Cornegliani, Mariella Gagliani, Simonetta Maiolatesi, Anita Paoletto, Adelchi Passalacqua, Maria Letizia Rapetti, Rolando Rossi, Fausta Rosti, Orietta Sinisi, Giam Pietro Stella, Mario Tariciotti, Augusto Zennaro
