“In the last period my life has changed a lot, I went from being a carefree boy, who had the sole objective of being happy, to fighting to be able to live”. And it was in the hospital that “I learned that life is a right”. Matteo is 14 years old, he is from Maccarese, near Rome, and he is one of the 12 boys who have taken the eighth grade exams at the Bambino Gesù in recent days. Exams and emotions are the same as those of all his peers, but in a context like that of a pediatric hospital, where the boys face complex paths that require them to stay on the ward for a long time.
The experience of the school in the hospital was born in the headquarters of the Gianicolo del Bambino Gesù almost 50 years ago, in the 1975/76 school year and in the school year that ended, over 4 thousand children took advantage of it. The possibility of continuing the schooling even when hospitalized is an integral part of the treatment for young patients forced to give up many aspects of their age.
In the school in the hospital, the teachers carry out their activity at the children’s bed or, for small groups, in dedicated common areas in the wards. In agreement with the school to which the patients belong, personalized pathways are identified and the normal assessment procedures, ballots and exams are carried out, such as those of the eighth grade carried out these days.
“I found myself fighting with a disease much bigger than me – writes Matteo, in his essay focused on human rights – and like me there were many other guys.
We have seen our bodies change shape, giving up sports, friends and passions. When you enter the hospital you discover many things that only those who experience them can understand and it is here that I learned that living is everyone’s right. All the wonderful people who fight alongside us, doctors, nurses and professors have taught me that. Despite the difficult period – he concludes – they taught me that despite everything life is wonderful”.
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