This year, International Women's Day was tinged with red. It is the color of the bench that was inaugurated on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, in front of the Casa Mia Retirement Home, an institution of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Forlì, Italy.
The inauguration ceremony took place in the presence of the mayor of Forlì, Gian Luca Zattini. Barbara Rossi and Andrea Cintorino, councilors for Welfare and Equal Opportunities, respectively, and other regional authorities also attended.
"The guests of the facility were eager to express their disapproval of all the violence suffered by women," explains the home director, Fabian Nikolaus. "They feel the need to feel alive by still being able to express their point of view. This led to the idea of installing a red bench in front of the nursing home, as a symbol of dissent to gender-based violence by the residents of Casa Mia."
The elderly residents of the nursing home wanted the bench to belong to the whole neighborhood, which is why shops in the area displayed keyrings with a small red shoe that were handed out to customers in exchange for a goodwill donation contributing to the project.
The red bench in front of Casa Mia joins those installed in Florence, at the Villa Aurora Institute, and Cesena, in front of the Adventist church.
Intergenerational Path
The inauguration concluded the Spicchio di paradiso (“A glimpse of paradise”) project the nursing home implemented to promote "respect, inclusion, and diversity." It is a path of knowledge and activities between the generations for mutual enrichment and to counter feelings that produce offense towards one another. The Melozzo Primary School was involved in the project, and the children of classes IV and V visited the elderly residents of Casa Mia. The activities carried out made it possible to share values and foster intergenerational dialogue and awareness of gestures and movements that convey emotions.
One of the aims of this project is to integrate the facility into the neighborhood, enhance the lives of the elderly, and boost their self-esteem.
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The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-European Division website.