Piana di GioiaTauro: First Masks, Now “The People’s” Sanitiser

Rome (NEV), 4th May 2020 – A new grass-roots solidarity project for migrants in the shanty towns of Piana di GioiaTauro in Calabria.   Hot on the heels of masks made by a network of activists and associations in Le Marche, in recent days the staff of Mediterranean Hope, migrant and refugee programme of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI), has taken receipt of bottles of “solidarity sanitiser”.

800 bottles of the people’s sanitiser, as it has been called, are to be distributed to farm labourers living in informal settlements in the Rosarno area.  The healthcareproduct was made in Florence by MaddalenaBenanchi, a “seasoned” Tuscan activist from the Brigate di solidarietà attiva, which mobilised within the Lights on Rosarno project.

From that came the idea of home-production, following the guidelines produced by the health authorities, of a sanitiser which could be provided for free to the most vulnerable. The entire production, from tickets to bottles, right up to sending out the product, is carried out by volunteers in a a demonstration of active solidarity

In recent days Ibrahim Diabate and Francesco Piobbichi, the two MH staff members working in the area have been delivering the bottles of sanitiser with instructions for use to farmworkers, together with masks in order to try to prevent and tackle Covid 19.