“The boys are giving us signals. Sometimes we can’t even read them, sometimes they are cries for help that we can’t hear. These WeFree Days have long been teaching everyone how to listen more to the hidden signs of this discomfort ”. Thus this morning the Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi, at the opening of the WeFree Days, the launch day of the prevention campaign of the San Patrignano community, who then addressed a final thought to the school and to the students in this period of pandemic: “Thanks to who, after this long phase of suspension due to Covid, which has been a phase of reflection, experimentation times and search for restarts, is committed to looking for a new way to live together in the best possible way, to really share a community “. The morning of the WeFree Days, organized under the patronage of the Presidency of the Republic, with the patronage of the Emilia-Romagna Region, thanks to the support of Despar and with QN-Il Resto del Carlino as media partner, was full of emotions for the children of the community and for the 3500 students from all over Italy who participated online connected by their classes. After the introduction by the minister, it was the turn of the prevention show “The right place” starring Verena, a young woman who had left the community, together with the actor and director Pascal La Delfa. At the end, after the discussion between the boys and the students, the WeFree 2021 awards were awarded to Luca Guadagnino and Nicolò Govoni, dedicated by San Patrignano to those who have distinguished themselves in their personal and professional commitment in favor of the new generations, promoting models and still life positive. Guadagnino, director, screenwriter and film producer, received the WeFree award for his ability to tell young people through cinematic language – the reasons say -, in particular for having adolescents live and tell in works such as “Call me by your name” and “We are who we are”, with a deep, attentive and clear look, free from judgments and preconceptions. “I think I have always looked at the theme of adolescence, from the first feature film,” The protagonists “- explained the director connected online – I think it is important to understand how adolescence, painful and exciting, is a dawn, a moment in where something is about to be born and something about to die. For this reason, the lack of judgment and cliché is the first thing to do in telling the boys. I must be ready to suspend judgment and to follow this dawn with a sense of wonder ”. Govoni, co-founder and president of the NGO “Still I Rise”, was awarded the WeFree Giovani prize for his personal commitment to guarantee the right to childhood, education, protection and dignity to refugee minors and vulnerability, showing the transformative power of education. From the school opened in Kenya in the Madare slum, Govoni recounted his experience: “When I was 20 I was lucky enough to forget a series of failures and start a new path, looking outside Italy. And I have seen 82 million refugees around the world who are unable to leave. It is from this feeling that I began to understand how this luck was completely undeserved and the minimum was to share it with others. Still Arise arrived five years later and opened schools for refugee children in Greece, Turkey, Syria, Kenya and soon in Congo and Colombia. I like to point out that nothing is ever forever, but in the positive. I learned that pain and disadvantage can end ”. After this day, the WeFree prevention campaign will continue during the school year 2021-22 and will reach about 50 thousand students in first and second grade secondary schools throughout Italy. WeFree did not stop even with the lockdown: during the school year 2020-21 it reached 26 thousand young people by implementing remote activities to continue to be present, to support the new generations and to continue to combat addictions and styles life at risk
Cs San Patrignano