Ci sono vite, come quella di Giulia, destinate ad essere vissute in salita, ma ci sono piccoli angeli, come Giulia, che stupiscono giorno dopo giorno per la forza d’animo, il sorriso sereno e lo sguardo profondo.
Giulia nella sua vita ha affrontato un grave problema di sviluppo psico-motorio che le ha reso difficile camminare, impossibile esprimersi verbalmente ed essere autonoma in molti gesti quotidiani. Giulia nella sua vita ha affrontato anche l’epilessia, le cui crisi forse sono state l’unica cosa in grado, a tratti, di spegnere le luce nei suoi occhi. Perché lo sguardo di Giulia é valso sempre più di mille parole. Così come il suo unico e personale modo di essere presente affettivamente con i gesti, con un sorriso e con i suoi occhioni azzurri. Giulia ha sempre trovato il modo di far sentire forte la sua presenza e di segnare indelebilmente il cuore di chi ha incrociato, seppur solo per un attimo, la sua vita.
“Ci sono vite, come quella di Giulia, destinate ad essere vissute in salita: nel 2004 una patologia oncologica aggredisce il suo fisico. E Giulia insegna a chi le sta vicino come si affronta il dolore fisico che la chemioterapia provoca, Giulia insegna a chi le sta vicino come si possa dare, pur nel silenzio, un senso forte alla propria vita”. Il 7 settembre 2005 Giulia é diventata un angelo.
Nascita e percorso
L’Associazione di Volontariato “GIULIA” Onlus (oggi ODV) nasce il 21 marzo 1996 dal desiderio dei volontari che prestavano il loro sostegno ai genitori della piccola Giulia di offrire il proprio aiuto e la propria disponibilità anche ad altri, in particolare ai diversamente abili, ai bambini ed agli anziani. La malattia e la perdita di Giulia determinano come naturale conseguenza la decisione di operare una svolta che si attua agli inizi del 2006, quando l’Associazione decide di concentrare la propria attività su un progetto mirato ai bambini oncologici del territorio ferrarese. La nostra raccolta fondi é infatti finalizzata a potenziare le risorse con figure professionali, quali uno Psico-Oncologo ed un Pediatra Oncologo, che in collaborazione con la Struttura Dipartimentale di Oncoematologia Pediatrica e Clinica Pediatrica dell’Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Arcispedale S.Anna di Cona siano in grado di accogliere e sostenere il piccolo paziente e la sua famiglia nel difficile cammino della malattia in senso globale. Tale attività é già operativa presso:
• Struttura Dipartimentale di Oncoematologia Pediatrica e Clinica Pediatrica dell’Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Arcispedale S.Anna di Cona a sostegno dei bambini affetti da patologie oncologiche nel percorso della malattia e dei trattamenti medici ed inoltre a sostegno dei familiari dei piccoli malati.
• Le sedi ospedaliere dell’Azienda AUSL di Ferrara a Cento, Lagosanto e Argenta a sostegno dei bambini sani costretti ad affrontare la malattia o la perdita di un genitore, o familiare, malato di tumore.
Nel 2009 é nata l’Associazione Giulia Ricerca che, in stretta collaborazione con le strutture sanitarie ed universitarie, ha lo scopo di sostenere progetti di ricerca e formazione diretti a medici, infermieri e psicologi in oncologia e psico-oncologia pediatrica.
English Version
September 1994: every day some volunteers go to Giulia’s house to help this 4 years little girl, during her hard life path and week by week, encouraged by her sweet smile and by her desire to live, they decide to help out also other people with problems. On the 21st of March 1996 the Voluntary and Human Solidarity Association GIULIA ONLUS was born. In its first 10 years of life, it had carried out voluntary activities for children, old and disabled people and it had organized events (matches and shows) to gather funds for support and research projects. In september 2005, Giulia became an Angel due to a serious oncological disease, so that the Association has decided to focus its activity on a project for children with cancer diseases living in Ferrara area or for children with parents suffering from cancer. The challenge of Giulia Association is to give back a smile to those children seriously ill, supporting them and their families, helping them to live as normally as possible during thier hospitalization and outside the hospital. The Association gives information about the disease, promotes the research and the collaboration among the different reginal and national Insitutes. Our Volunteers, after a specific training course, go weekly to the Departement of the Pediatric Clinic and to the oncological peidatric Day Hosiptal of S.Anna Hospital of Cona-Ferrara to help children and their families. Since 2007 we have been financing a psycho-oncologist profession who can welcome and help the child with cancer and his/her family during the hard path of the disease: the hospitalization and the following checks at the oncological pediatric Day Hospital of S.Anna Hospital in Cona-Ferrara. Since February 2011, in agreement with the Local Sanitary Service, the Psycho-Oncology Service in Cento, Lagosanto and Argenta has been increased with a Psycho-Oncologist in order to help children to face the disease or the loss of a parent with cancer.
PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY AND ONCOLOGY PROJECT IN CHILDHOOD. A HELP TO THE NEED OF THE CHILDREN AND OF THEIR RELATIVES AMONG THERAPY, TRAINING AND RESEARCH.
Since 2006 the Voluntary Association “GIULIA” has been working on a project focused on children with cancer diseases living in Ferrara area. Our gathering of funds aims to support professions such as a Psycho-Oncologist and a Pediatrician-Oncologist, who, in collaboration with the Department of Pediatric Onco-Hematology, the Pediatric Clinic of S.Anna Hospital, the Psycho-Oncology Service of the Psychiatric Clinic of Ferrara Univeristy and the local Health Service, are able to welcome and help the child and his/her family during the hard moment of the disease.
This activity is carried out:
1. At the Departement of Pediatric Onco-Hematology and at the Pediatric Clinic of S.Anna Hospital to support children with cancer during the course of the disease and of the medical treatments and to support their families.
2. At the Local Health Service of Ferrara, Cento, Lagosanto and Argenta to help children forced to face the disease or the loss of a parent with cancer. The main target of the project is to reduce the stress and to give to the child and his/her family a real help during this difficult moment.
Giulia Association Research, in close collaboration with the Health Services and the Univeristy, supports research projects and the training of doctors, nurses and psychologists in Oncology and Pediatric Psycho-Oncology. www.associazionegiulia.com/2018 – info@associazionegiulia.com Our project can be also yours….help us to support it….
Since March 2011, thanks to a research benefit a Pediatrician specialized in Oncology has been added to the Department of Pediatric Onco-Hematology and to the Pediatric Clinic of S.Anna Hospital of Cona-Ferrara. This profession has the purpose to give a global help to children with cancer. Thanks to “Associazione Giulia Ricerca” the research and the training in pediatric oncology and psycho-oncology have been financing: in this way refresher and training courses in the most important Italian medical centres are guaranteed to doctors, nurses and psycologists who work in a pediatric environment at S.Anna Hospital in Ferrara. We are able to realize our projects thanks to funds gathering, to the organization of events and to the help of our supporters. The “service” for children and their families supplied by the Voluntary Association Giulia Onlus is completly free. There are lives, like Giulia’s life, that are destined to go uphill, but there are little angels, like Giulia, who amaze us day by day for their moral strenght, their peaceful smile and their deep gaze. In her life, Giulia faced a serious psychomotor development problem, that gave her a hard time to walk, to talk and to be independent in everyday actions. Giulia faced also several epilepsy crisis, that at times weakened the light in her eyes…because Giulia’s gaze was much more worth than thousand of words, as well as her unique and personal way to give love through her gestures, her smile and her blue eyes. Giulia had always found the way to let people feel her presence and to leave an unforgettable mark in the heart of those who crossed her life also for a moment. There are lives, like Giulia’s life, that are destined to go uphill: in 2004, an oncological disease attacked her body. Giulia taught to those around her how to face the pain due to the chemiotherapy and how to give a strong meaning to life though in total silence. On the 7th of September 2005 Giulia became an Angel.
