“At Fapil, we immediately set to work to comply with the national and regional regulations introduced starting from February 21…
GiamPaolo Pesenti
CEO, FAPIL (Zogno, Bergamo)
www.fapil.it
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
“At Fapil, we immediately set to work to comply with the national and regional regulations introduced starting from February 21. At the beginning, everyone underestimated the situation, but we immediately decided to reorganize our activity to keep the necessary distance and protect our staff with masks and gloves. I was personally fighting on the frontline, as I have a role in my municipality and I am in charge for the emergency coordination center. The situation was clearly difficult from the very start and we were forced to make unpopular decisions: for instance, in the early days of the epidemic, we cancelled the Carnival parade, and few days later we closed all parks and gardens, then the open-air marketplace, the bike path and the public offices. We took these measures long before higher-level entities decided to act…In the town of Zogno, we immediately organized a production of face masks: with the help of volunteers, we enrolled about sixty “home seamstresses”, organized the logistics for the distribution of materials and equipment to make the masks and, once ready, to collect, pack, sterilize and deliver them door-to-door. We are talking about more than ten thousand face masks produced and delivered in less than ten days. Our communities organized home delivery services for essential goods to weaker categories, medicines to sick people, counseling and psychological support. The big heart of our communities and of the people and volunteers of Bergamo has proved its efficiency. But not the rest. We lacked guidance from those at the higher level.”
- What do you think is changing or will change radically?
“For a few years, our social life will change, the way we meet, we visit customers and we celebrate. I would like to focus attention on kids: I have two young children and they are those who suffer most from the deprivation of the freedom to play, party, meet, go to school… this will have consequences that can hardly be estimated in the short term. We will have generations of people who have suffered in their childhood and we cannot predict their reactions when they grow up, and the impact on our future society.”
- What should the authorities and all of us do?
“Plan for the future, how we can move, work, study and live. As long as we don’t have a vaccine, everyone should stick to a set of social rules: few, clear and with no margin for interpretation, relying on the common sense of people (which many don’t have, unfortunately). Someone in the high spheres has made mistakes, and only now, April 15, 2020, the World Health Organization is recommending to wear masks to avoid contagion… They should also plan for the future instead of running after events…”.
