INCLUSION, the world can be saved only by peace

Today, January 10, 2017, is a special day: with a big display of kindness, the General Direction of the Italian Development Cooperation of the Ministry for External Affairs has declared that it will take care of shipping the aids and the medical-sanitary materials for the people with disability living in the Island of Idwji, as well as food supplies for the babies of hosted by the Main Provincial Hospital of Bukavu.

Today, thanks to the generosity of firms like the Ortopedia Meridionale, of institutions like the Pitagora-Croce High School of Torre Annunziata, and of so many vigorous people, we have succeeded in placing the first stone of the bridge we want to build together in order to shorten the huge distance between us and North-Kivu, a region afflicted by enormous difficulties, which has the right to rise again and live in peace.

For this reason, I turn to all the people I have met in the last ten years, those who manifested solidarity and proximity, and ask them to keep sustaining me in a struggle which is not over yet.

I am convinced that, like any other individual in any part of the world, people with disability should be able to enjoy a full citizenship, which means that they should be able to decide about themselves freely and independently. Today, however, the policies in favor of people with disability are still limited to provide them with financial or material helps, thus culpably neglecting the importance of their full inclusion within society.

I would like to greet you all with a wish that is also a hope: when the day will come (and I am sure it will) when I will swim from Cuba to Miami, the Straits of Florida, from Habana to Key West, will be crossed by a human chain carrying all the flags of the world.

All the best
Salvatore Cimmino