Turin (Italy). Sr. Erica Giuliano, Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of the Turin Community Mary Help of Christians, of Mary Help of Christians Province of Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta (IPI) and a Professional Nurse, joined the “Piedmont vaccinates you” campaign as a volunteer.
In Italy, the vaccination campaign began in March 2021, through the organization of the Regions based on the availability of health and administrative personnel, with the aim of reaching all population groups quickly and widely. The Italian Red Cross, together with Civil Protection and voluntary associations, contribute to the construction and operation of vaccination centers with health personnel and organizational systems.
From November 2020 to March 2021, Sr. Erica was involved in the assistance and care of the elderly sisters in the FMA communities of Piedmont affected by Covid-19. Since April, she has responded to the request for volunteer personnel to administer vaccines for the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 infections at the Lingotto Vaccination Center in Turin
Sr. Erica state, “I consider this experience a gift, a way to take care of others. I experience daily contact with nurses, doctors, volunteers together, ready for welcoming and dedicating ourselves to the people to be vaccinated, who are experiencing a moment of fragility, showing fear, agitation, tension. I experience every day how important it is to be welcoming, available, smiling, to be able to downplay, to understand anxiety.
This mission is a place for me to learn from those with more experience. As a Daughter of Mary Help of Christians I feel enriched every day because I have the opportunity to accompany young nurses and doctors and together take care of people.
Everyone uses their professional skills accompanied by a role and a ‘tag’, even if sometimes listening, empathy, and the ability to establish a relationship of true trust count more.”
These are gestures of active citizenship and attention to the person of the educational mission of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The Mother General of the FMA Institute, Sr. Yvonne Reungoat, in Circular 1010, “With the heart of the Good Samaritan in a wounded world” writes:
“In our daily choices, in the small or large situations that weave our days, we do not want to be people who turn away and hurry on without stopping, but women inhabited by the Gospel, aware that no one must remain on the ‘margins of life’ because we are all brothers and sisters. … In every crisis like the one that the whole world is suffering, there is always a way out, provided that the principle of individualism is replaced with the strength of tenderness and solidarity, like beneficial water overflowing with God’s mercy is capable of transforming suffering into hope”.
