We have reached 11,000 euros thanks to the subscriptions of many. Since last March 26, when neither the government, nor the regions nor the municipalities had yet taken note that many people were starting to no longer even have enough to feed themselves, the association of which I belong, Cittadinanza e Minoranze, launched a request of help. An artisanal subscription that in twelve days raised an amount that, frankly, we ourselves did not expect but, above all, immediately transformed that same amount into aid for a few hundred families.
Not much, you will say. In fact, these are small aids, a maximum of one hundred euros, or, thanks to Nonna Roma, an association of volunteers who are friends and associates, food parcels brought to over one hundred Roma families who live in occupied buildings, after being driven out of the paper mill in the Salaria and from Camping River.
Little thing. But still something to get by while the shopping vouchers at the moment are still just an endless pyramid of sheets of paper with registered questions on the desks of the town halls.
The story of the shopping vouchers, however, must be told.
On 31 March the government, with all its territorial offshoots, realizes that people are beginning to no longer have the money even to go shopping and allocates a reasonable amount (subsequently fleshed out also by further regional additions) to anyone who requests by filling in a certain form.
The form, a good three sheets, is quite complex and you also have to submit it online. Naturally, just as at school not everyone has a computer to be able to follow the lessons (therefore the Roma children in the camps who went to school were suddenly deprived of their right guaranteed by the constitution) new technologies are not very popular among Roma adults either .
Thus, my association along with others, begins to compile that great pile of papers. Not only that: for each application you need to attach your identity document and then sign them. A crazy job started at a good pace.
We, in our small way, have disposed of a hundred or maybe more but now the backlash is coming. The Roma whom we have helped to apply are now asking us why they still haven’t received anything at all and if we can solicit them. But who should we solicit? What can we do?
So, like mules, we go forward on the edge of an all uphill road and Marco manages to obtain a certain number of masks from the municipality to distribute in the fields and, listen, listen, as many as one hundred Easter doves.
Cristina discovers that the Town Hall 14 has sent volunteers to the Candoni camp who have made everyone fill out a very simplified form for shopping vouchers, which does not even involve checking the documents, saying that they will be the ones to deliver the vouchers.
Anna continues to fill in forms, to solicit donations, and to answer helplessly to the Roma who call her to find out when they can have their voucher, that Easter is approaching and there is no party or lunch for anyone.
Nino completes wire transfers from morning to night and our account is always zero balance.
For those who want to help us fill it up again, at least a little, here are the coordinates: IT50V0538703241000035100781, inserting in the description “donation for the Roma” and your e-mail address to be able to send you the report of how much we will collect and how we will use the money harvest. The amount of the payments can be deducted in the tax return by attaching a copy of the bank transfer certificate.