This is the third pediatric hospital to welcome the initiative which places an emphasis on the importance of supporting young people through access to quality education.
Trieste, May 31 – The third “ABF TeachBus” was donated today to the Burlo Garofolo Pediatric Institute for the hospital school that is part of the Italian Pediatric Hospitals Association (AOPI) network. The Health Director of the Burlo Garofolo Institute, Dr. Paola Toscani, ABF’s President, Laura Biancalani, and Marco Moscatelli, the Triveneto Area Manager for Generali Italia, were all present for the handover.
The TeachBus is a real digital library designed to enhance distance learning, which is part of the “With You, To Shape the Future – Distance Learning for Hospital Schools” project that was conceived by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation (ABF) and is sponsored with the support of Generali Italia and its agents. The project was launched in the months prior at Gaslini Hospital in Genoa and Salesi Hospital in Ancona and, after an enforced stop due to COVID-19, Trieste is marking the restart of the initiative that will involve all 15 hospitals in the AOPI national network.
“Over the last year, all students and teachers have been faced with new educational technologies – said Laura Biancalani for ABF – “but in the hospital environment in particular, the digital medium represents a valuable resource that can give back crucial learning and relationship-building opportunities. Access to education as a means to nurturing the different talents of every child has always been the cornerstone of our work, both within Italy and abroad, and the embodiment of our mission of empowering people and communities. That is why we felt it essential to commit ourselves to a project in which the promotion of quality education is the condition for fostering the expression of everyone’s potential and taking care of their future prospects”.
“The professionalism of the Burlo Institute comes together with the enthusiasm and immense generosity of ABF, to launch a collaboration that will allow our patients to use devices as real tools to support learning processes” – said Paola Toscani, Health Director of the Burlo Garofolo Institute – “This will allow them to develop their potential to the fullest and overcome the limits of hospitalization and their disease by staying in contact with their class and their world”.
This initiative is supported by Generali Italia and its agents to help the children and young people admitted to the long-stay wards of Italian pediatric hospitals. Generali are once again standing with communities that find themselves in difficult situations. This is a solid commitment that Generali Italia, together with The Human Safety Net Foundation, is advancing in Italy with “Ora di Future” –Time for the Future – also, the education project for children that involves teachers, families, elementary schools and non-profit networks.
Lucia Sciacca, Communications and Sustainability Director at Generali Italia, said: “We are committed every day to having a positive impact on the real economy and strengthening our social role as the Life Partner of people. With this project from the Bocelli Foundation, together with our agents, we are supporting the children admitted to the long-stay wards of Italian pediatric hospitals to offer them tangible support. For us, this means having a positive impact on the communities and regions in which we live and work.”
The “ABF with You, to Shape the Future for Hospital Schools” project has been created in collaboration with the Italian Ministry of Education and the Italian Pediatric Hospitals Association, representing another important step forward to make pediatric hospitals a place where every child is given back their right to quality education, as a fundamental part of their well-being and growth.
With the aim of ensuring that the new technologies are tools that support, supplement and enrich learning processes, in addition to the provision of the tablets and laptops inside the ABF TeachBus, the project includes the incorporation of a digital atelierista to support the teachers, tasked with promoting the acquisition of new and transversal perspectives on the use of technological tools, also thanks to a specific online educational platform.
Thanks to the “ABF TeachBus”, the Burlo Institute can now count on tablets and laptops handed over to the students with all the content and apps installed, which have been carefully chosen on the basis of their age group also, which will go back to the digital library ready to be reassigned to another student – once their program of study has finished. Lenovo is the initiative’s technological partner.
You can help develop the “With You, to Shape the Future” project by donating at https://donate.andreabocellifoundation.org/. You can donate from abroad via bank transfer using the following details: IBAN IT53K0523271030000010016699
Reference: With You, to Shape the Future or by sending an email to development@andreabocellifoundation.org.
