An “educational path aimed at Sicilian schools of all levels, promoting within schools actions of education to citizenship and legality, respect for gender and initiatives to combat all forms of discrimination”. This is the purpose of the memorandum of understanding signed by the Sicilian regional councilor for Education Girolamo Turano and the general director of the regional school office Giuseppe Pierro with the president of the cultural association Biesse Bruna Siviglia: therefore, the project “Justice and Humanity – Free to Choose” is also institutionalized in Sicily, inspired by the work of the magistrate Roberto Di Bella, president of the juvenile court of Catania and previously of Reggio Calabria, who made it happen together with Siviglia, creator and founder of the association, and it has already become regional law in Calabria.
It was from here that the long journey began, which along the way has found increasingly important support, up to the presentation in recent months at the Chamber of Deputies, at Palazzo San Macuto, headquarters of the Anti-Mafia Commission in the presence of the president Chiara Colosimo and the undersecretary of the Interior Wanda Ferro. A journey dotted with meetings and dialogues especially in the places where young people build their present and their future: the schools, which have welcomed the format proposed by the association through the reading of the book “Liberi di Scelta – La battaglia di un giudice minorile per liberare i ragazzi dalla ‘ndrangheta” written by the magistrate together with the journalist Monica Zapelli and the viewing of the film Liberi di Scelta, directed by Giacomo Campiotti broadcast by Rai, with Alessandro Preziosi and many stories of young people, to discover a life different from the one that the deviant family context would otherwise have reserved. And this is the crux of the project, a difficult choice, initially the object of distrust and criticism, but then revealed to be a winning one: that of distancing the children and their mothers from criminal families, to offer a better future. And this is the crux of the project, a difficult choice, initially the object of mistrust and criticism, but then revealed to be a winning one: that of distancing children and their mothers from criminal families, to offer a better future.
Sharing the Sicilian Region
“The Department of Education and the Usr Sicilia – highlights a note from the Region – will participate in the project’s activities and will involve the school institutions, while the Biesse association is committed to concretely carrying out cultural and educational activities for students, to collaborate with companies and organizations present in the territory to combat educational poverty and social exclusion and promote the health and well-being of disadvantaged youth groups. Among the most innovative aspects, the fight against all forms of discrimination and stigmatization of young offenders and the promotion of work projects aimed at young people subjected to criminal proceedings”.
The protocol aims to accompany students of Sicilian schools of all levels “in a path of education to citizenship and legality, to gender respect and to the fight against all forms of discrimination, with the aim of reducing juvenile discomfort and deviance and promoting the development and fulfillment of the human person. The project, inspired by the work of juvenile judge Roberto Di Bella, who has allowed many adolescents at risk of deviance to experience new horizons in life, plans to promote the culture of legality, the value of choice and freedom as a primary good, through the viewing of films, reading books, online and in-person meetings in schools with institutional figures (law enforcement, judiciary, actors, directors, witnesses of justice) and the organization of a competition aimed at all Sicilian educational institutions”.
«We want to affirm an idea, that is, that school is the greatest means of social redemption – declares the Councillor for Education, Mimmo Turano – a tool for emancipation and change. Supporting a project like “Justice and Humanity – Free to Choose” means telling young Sicilians that there are no marked lives, that there is always a real possibility for change, it also means changing the image of Sicily from a land of condemnation to a land of redemption».
«The school – says the general director of the Usr Sicilia Joseph Pierro – has always been committed to ensuring that the right to education is guaranteed to everyone, both minors and adults. Our commitment is also maximum in the fight against school dropout, also strengthening all those activities that can contribute to reducing this complex phenomenon with multiple causes at its origin. The school has also given itself the task of creating connections with the reality of the territory in which each educational institution operates in order to increase the educational value of the initiatives and create prospects for our young people”.
“No destiny is sealed forever,” he says. Brown Seville – “Giustizia e Umanità Liberi di Scelta” is a hymn to hope that one can escape from criminal contexts and that another life is possible. Since 2019 we have been going around schools throughout Italy through this project promoted and conceived by Biesse Associazione Culturale Bene Sociale which is inspired by the work of Judge Roberto Di Bella, educating young people on the value of freedom and conscious choice. From Calabria, which has made this project a Regional Law, no. 27 of 28 June 2023, today the Biesse-branded project lands in Sicily with this very important memorandum of understanding between Biesse, the Regional School Office and the Department of Public Education. A great pride for all of us. RI sincerely thank the director of the School Office Giuseppe Pierro, the councilor for Education Girolamo Turano, the president of the Ses Gazzetta del Sud Giornale di Sicilia and of the Bonino Pulejo Foundation Lino Morgante, who gave voice and space to this extraordinary educational path aimed at schools and young people, who are the main protagonists. And a special thanks goes to the Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior Hon. Wanda Ferro and to the president of the Regional Council of Calabria Filippo Mancuso”.
“After the Calabrian regional law, another important step for the cultural project Giustizia e Umanità Liberi di cattivo that arrives in Sicily. – highlights the president Roberto DiBella – The agreement signed by the regional councilor for education, the director of the regional school office and the president of the BS association can represent – as happened in Calabria – a fundamental turning point in the strategies for preventing youth hardship in Sicily. The mafias are above all a cultural phenomenon even before being criminal. For this reason it is very important to talk – as we have been doing for years in the Calabrian reality – to students demystifying the myth and the mafia model that unfortunately still fascinates – unknowingly – so many young people. The cultural project Giustizia e Umanità Liberi di cattivo has enormous potential and, if adequately supported by the Sicilian region and by the school structures, it can change the lives of so many young people in a positive way”.
“Publishing Company Sud Gazzetta del Sud Newspaper of Sicily – underlines the president Ses Lino Morgante – committed to responsible information and, with the Bonino Pulejo Foundation, to training for the younger generations, has always been particularly close to the “Justice and Humanity – Free to Choose” path of the Biesse association, appreciating the civil commitment of the founder Bruna Siviglia and the president Roberto Di Bella, a magistrate who has always wanted to make his work a mission. And Ses, with its means of communication, has also wanted to carry out its social role, promoting the dissemination and therefore the knowledge of the project with respect to the community and to those who can concretely benefit from it. And after having followed and supported the path in Calabria we are now proud to be able to continue also in Sicily, contributing positively to the reality in which we operate in the effort of not limiting ourselves to telling it honestly, but trying to make it always better”.
The presentation event on the 26th in Palermo
The Sicilian protocol will be presented on Thursday 26 September at 10:30 in the Salone delle Bifore of Palazzo Sclafani, made available by the Military Command of the Army in Sicily, currently led by General of the Army Corps Maurizio Angelo Scardino, in the presence of the Institutions and representatives of the school world, to spread the path of legality in the Sicilian civil fabric through a broad sharing. The event will be attended by Francis Princebrigadier general, new commander of the Army Military Command in Sicily, who will welcome the guests, and Roberto LagallaMayor of Palermo, for institutional greetings. Then they will speak Brown Seville, national president and founder of the cultural association Biesse Bene Sociale, Lino Morgantepresident of the Publishing Company Sud Gazzetta del Sud Giornale di Sicilia and of the Bonino Pulejo Foundation, Jerome Turanoregional councillor for education, Joseph Pierro, general director of the Regional School Office of Sicily, and Roberto DiBella, president of the Juvenile Court of Catania. The Undersecretary of State to the Ministry of the Interior, Hon. Wanda Ferro. They will also be present Bernard Petraliaformer head of the Dap, Octavius Sferlazzaformer chief prosecutor of the Palmi Public Prosecutor’s Office, the anti-mafia magistrate Teresa Principality And Tina Montinaropresident of the Quarto Savona Quindici association.