Reaching out to the needy

 

Non Profit ID card: present your project/organisation/campaign

– Where are you based? The head office of the association is in Corso Trapani 91/b, Turin, inside the so-called ‘e factory’, a former industrial hangar that up until the the mid seventies was home to an Italian Constructions business. The memory of what our headquarters used to be remains as some of the old machinery has been preserved and touched up (such as the coloured truck which welcomes visitors). The names of the conference rooms are also all called “workshops” or “shops”. The letter e (which in Italian means and), contained in the name of the head office, indicates the will to transform the many – the too many – os (which in Italian means or) that in everyday life divide, brand, create mechanisms of exclusion, into es, able to promote meetings, exchanges of opinions, paths of commitment, of solidarity, of justice.

– What are you called? Associazione Gruppo Abele Onlus (Abele Group Non Profit Organization)

– What are you doing and why? The Gruppo Abele is a Turin-based association which, for the last 45 years, has been fragile people’s welcome with cultural and political commitment to build social justice. Our projects and activities include basic services, communities for dependency problems, listening and orientation spaces for people in difficulty, migrants and victims of sexual exploitation. A commitment to research and information (with the publication of two periodical publications and the creation of a study centre and of a library) and educational paths aimed at young people, operators and families, besides cooperation projects in Africa and a consortium of social cooperatives to give a job to people with problems (with difficult stories). Persuaded by the importance of the notion of us and of our joint responsibility, we have promoted the birth of social commitment networks (Cnca, Lila) and we have been cooperating closely since 1995 with ’Libera. Associazioni, nomi e numeri contro le mafie’ (Free. Associations, names and numbers against mafias).

– Do you have a website/email? http://www.gruppoabele.org/; infosito@gruppoabele.org

– Do you have a Twitter/facebook link/name? Some of the 50 activities of the Gruppo Abele are on social networks. For instance you can visit the Facebook page of the Gruppo Abele magazine Narco-Mafias, or know about the training courses of the Università della Strada (the Street University) of the Gruppo Abele.

– What makes you so special? The Gruppo Abele has always been linking welcome and culture with the idea of turning social practice into thought. For this reason it edits magazines (Narcomafie, Animazione sociale, Pagine), publications, books and with the Università della Strada it trains on topics with which the association has been dealing since its birth.

 

The turning point

– How did you start? The Gruppo Abele was born 45 years ago. During Christmas 1965 its founder and current president, Father Luigi Ciotti, who had dedicated himself to voluntary activities for some years, asked some young people to do something together for those living in situations of hardship and marginalization. The group that was born then gave itself the name “Gioventù Impegnata” (Committed Youth).

The present name was chosen at the end of 1968, taking inspiration from a television programme entitled I giardini di Abele (Abele’s gardens), in which the journalist who hosted it talked about the first experience of opening a mental hospital in Gorizia (in the north-east of Italy), based on the experience of the innovative work of Franco Basaglia (Italian psychiatrist and promoter of an important reform in the Italian mental health system, the legge 180/78 in 1978 that established the abolition of mental health facilities).

Abele is the victim of indifference, of irresponsibility, of selfishness. The Gruppo Abele has always wanted to embody that perspective, in the persuasion that it is always the other, any “other”, the guardian of every identity and of every freedom.

– What keeps you going every day? The daily motivation originates from the meeting with those who need our presence to overcome situations of fragility in which we are involved, with those who trust us and with those who support us during difficult moments.

– Who is your target? The association welcomes people in difficulty for problems connected to alcohol, drugs, HIV/Aids or people who are victims of violence, trade or sexual exploitation and is addressed to all the citizens who want to commit to assert rights.

 

The challenge

– Another cool project/organisation/campaign you would like to recommend?

TERRA DEL FUOCO: http://www.terradelfuoco.org

LIBERA:www.libera.it

 

 

 

http://www.gruppoabele.org

 

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