![“Your Medici Project is what we have already been doing for years” [notiziediprato.it]](http://www.notiziediprato.it/uploads/newspersonal/images//scheda//f331629f3743345909fdd5f784a276a2e933df17.jpg "“Your Medici Project is what we have already been doing for years” [notiziediprato.it]")
Poggio a Caiano, Puggelli against Palandri: “His Medici Project is what we have already been doing for years”
The current mayor recalls that he was the one who promoted the involvement of citizens for voluntary activities. And on the center-right program he adds: “The aid and contributions for rent and for shopping have disappeared: they intend to abandon the families of Pogge in difficulty”
Less than a month after the vote for the renewal of the Poggio a Caiano municipal council, the debate between the two competing sides is ignited, with the mayor Francesco Puggelli taking up the centre-right candidate the day after the announcement of the Medici project for involve citizens in the management of public affairs. “It is enough to look at the doors of the Municipality or the Library, but it would also be enough to consult the regulation on the Municipality website – says Puggelli -, to acknowledge that in Poggio dozens of citizens already do volunteer work every day in favor of the community. In 2015 I personally took care of the institution of the register of civic volunteering as councilor for social affairs and participation and, since then, there are hundreds of Poggesi who are committed to citizen decorum”.
“In Poggio, just to give an example – continues Puggelli -, our elders, based on their availability, are involved daily in activities designed to encourage intergenerational exchange between different age groups (in accompanying the kids on the bus or with the Pedibus for example) and the same goes for the volunteers of the area, whose help in recent years has been essential for small but significant interventions in the gardens or for cleaning the Bargo on dedicated days”.
Among the already active projects that involve citizens in taking care of Poggio there is also the “social barter” which provides for an economic contribution to pay for groceries and bills for all those families who are experiencing a moment of difficulty and who in return undertake to donate some of their time and skills to the Poggio community.
“In other words – adds Puggelli – Palandri’s Medici Project is nothing more than a re-proposition of what is already being done in Poggio (and which finds ample space in the program of our list “Poggio, Insieme!” which plans to enhance and improve it )”.
Instead, it is on the policies for the most fragile people that the divergence of ideas and intentions between the two clearly emerges, starting precisely from the elimination of social bartering.
“What is astounding, reading the program on Palandri’s list, is the total absence of policies for the most disadvantaged people – insists Puggelli -: there is no form of contribution to help families go shopping, pay the bills , or the rent. Every year about 40 families of Poggio can count on the help of the administration to have a sacred right recognized, which is the right to own a house. In five years we have disbursed 329,000 euros in the form of rent contributions, plus meal vouchers for families in Pogge. How is it conceivable to be able to abandon these people? At a time when poverty is increasing everywhere, people in difficulty are forgotten in Poggio. Unfortunately my opponent has very partial knowledge of our community and it emerges very clearly.
“Each policy aimed at social welfare and health that we have included in our program starts from listening to and knowing the territory – adds Puggelli going into the merits of his program – but above all puts the person and the dignity of the individual at the center , because in Poggio we don’t want to leave anyone behind. For this reason we will continue to make contributions towards the payment of the rent, to deliver shopping vouchers and meals at home for the elderly who are alone and without a family network. Not only. In addition to consolidating the Dopo di Noi project to facilitate and encourage the cohabitation of people without autonomy, accompanied and followed by professional educators, we intend to identify innovative formulas, in collaboration with the Health Society, for making a dedicated property available to single but autonomous elderly people, whose purpose is cohabitation and mutual support, obviously under the supervision of the professional social service. And then we will continue the support service for the study of children and young students of elementary and middle schools through the renewal of the agreement with Effetà, an association of the parish Caritas. These are just some of the projects we intend to carry out for a community without discrimination, without inequalities and to give everyone equal access to local services”.