Manfredonia, Nicodemo Project, the elderly protagonists of their city: “It was a Saturday, February 19, 2005, when the Sisters of Charity of St. Giovanna Antida of the Institute of St. Francis of Paola opened their home for the first time to the elderly from all over Manfredonia, particularly from the populous Croce-Di Vittorio neighborhood. We thought we would have few participants, but instead in just a few days we immediately had a presence of about a hundred elderly people, mostly women, aged between 65 and 87”.
Thus Prof. Michele Illiceto recalls how for twenty years the Nicodemo Project has been providing social activities for the city’s elderly: “The project was born thanks to the initiative and tenacity of the Mother Superior at the time, Sister Annamaria Leone, who, supported by all the other sisters, asked me what initiative they could do for the neighborhood as Sisters of Charity. And the choice fell on the elderly, obtaining great credit from the families who saw in this initiative a great opportunity to get their elderly out of the house. It is a way to allow the elderly not to feel alone or abandoned, forgotten and excluded, but strongly integrated and participating in social life, aware that they still have much to give. To help them live their old age actively, as guardians of memory and traditions to be handed down to new generations.
The main objective of the project has been, and continues to be, to allow the elderly – especially women – to have a space where they can meet to socialize and express their creativity and potential. A safe and protected environment where they can escape their loneliness, socialize and face this difficult season of life with serenity. But the project also involves the families to which they belong, to spread a culture of meeting, welcoming and caring for each other, and respecting those who are weaker, with the aim of stemming the widespread culture of waste and indifference.
When the St. Francis of Paola Institute also had a school, it often happened that primary school children met the elderly, thus fostering intergenerational relationships and the art of cultivating memory.
Activities begin in early October and end in late June, although during the summer the sisters’ house always remains open for those who, passing by, are looking for someone to talk to and confide in. The sisters carry out this initiative with generosity and dedication, but also with stubbornness and tenacity, with the sole intention of focusing their attention on this vulnerable section of the local population, who are often left alone or confined and abandoned within their own homes”.
