Below is an article published on July 27 on the website of the Municipality of Rovigo

“We continue to network for a more sustainable and inclusive world”

Guests this morning in the Town Hall were the boys and girls of the international volunteer camp organized by Legambiente Rovigo in Gaiba as part of the European project INVOLVE. Together with the Einaip high school in Rovigo and Ipsia in Badia Polesine, various local realities collaborate in the initiatives of the field, from diocesan Caritas to Arci Solidarity, from the cooperative “Di tutti i colori” to Porto Alegre, up to its football team who pulled up and which bears the same name.

Present at the meeting, organized to illustrate the initiative, the councilor for youth policies Erika Alberghini and for the Environment Dina Merlo, the mayor of Gaiba Nicola Zanca and the president of Legambiente Rovigo Giulia Bacchiega.

“It is a source of satisfaction for us – said Alberghini – to be a partner in this important project, which has the environment as its thematic background and the involvement of young people is fundamental”.

On the same wavelength Merlo. “The administration shares a passion for the environment and is committed to implementing environmental sustainability actions by improving urban greenery and supporting styles that allow citizens a better quality of life and a more sustainable city. International exchanges are very important for a comparison of actions and objectives, especially for young people ”.

“We are thus continuing an important partnership, the one with the Municipality of Rovigo – is the comment of Giulia Bacchiega, president of Legambiente Rovigo – Networking between different institutional realities has always been the key to our association to spread the themes of sustainability and inclusion”.

The European project – of which the Municipality of our city is a partner – started in January 2019 and aims to improve the inclusion of citizens of third countries through volunteer paths aimed at the recovery and enhancement of the environmental and cultural heritage, with the ” goal of contributing all together, citizens of third countries and host Europeans, to the construction of more cohesive and safer communities: fifteen girls and boys from France will participate in the volunteer camp of the circle of the swan which will end at the end of July, Spain, Germany and Poland who have decided to take care and rediscover our territory: and so today it was also an opportunity to learn about their stories.

Kaisa – who is 18 and comes from Poland – choses to participate in the volunteer camp because she wants to make a difference: “Our actions at the local level are really important, they have tangible consequences: as men and women we have caused climate change and we can stop it ». Niccolò Brizzolari, just graduated in Rovigo, thinks so too: «Greta taught us that you are never too young to make a difference». For his commitment to the environment, the boy from Polesine was awarded as “Standard Bearer of the Republic” by President Sergio Mattarella himself: he was one of the three boys to launch the first global climate strike two years ago, one of the most popular events that can be remembered in our city.

For Lare, a girl who comes from Madrid, it is instead the first participation in an environmental volunteer experience, but the passion is always the same: “It’s my way to help, to meet and make friends with other people around the world”.

Satisfaction also from the mayor of Gaiba. “These guys have given us a lot of energy and enthusiasm. For them it is an incredible opportunity, an experience that has led them to work as a team and synergy with the territory “.

In the afternoon, the volunteers moved to Rovigo for the arrangement of Langer Park, a way to take care of the green spaces of our territory. There were many citizen science, territorial protection and inclusion activities that involved the boys and girls of the camp: in addition to the flash mob on the Po river – to emphasize how important water resources will be for our future – on the evening of Wednesday 21 July the meeting “Climate change and environmental migration” was organized and on Friday 23 a public meeting on the health of the Po river and on climate change took place.

Here the link to the original news:

https://bit.ly/373d6W9