The goal of the activity was to raise awareness about the inclusion of people with disabilities in our society and to create a space without barriers in the local community. Moreover, we wanted our international students to meet the local associations that work on these topics and people behind them.
The activity consisted of a social media campaign and an event, held on Zoom: "A coffee with ESN Pisa: how to make society more inclusive in our everyday life".
The info-interactive campaign, carried out on the occasion of International Down Syndrome Day, aimed to raise awareness on these issues and to promote the event itself. It consisted of IG info-interactive stories about the main prejudices faced by people with Down syndrome and a story promoting the event.
L'Alba', a local association that works to reintegrate people with a mental illness into society, and AIPD (Italian Association for People with Down syndrome), which was present with two volunteers and two young people with Down syndrome, took part in the event call. The volunteer from "L'Alba" made a focus on how to address people with a cognitive disability in an inclusive way, while AIPD spoke about the aims of their association and their activities, also told from the point of view of Cesare e Lucrezia, the people with Down syndrome present in the call. In particular, Cesare told us about the time when he learned how to make Pizza and he had prepared the recipe in order to give it to the international student, while Lucrezia showed us an experience where he learned how to make some cocktails hoping to use this skill when the pandemic will be over.
After the speeches, an interesting debate developed from the themes introduced and eventually touched on several points, including a focus on the effects of the pandemic on people with cognitive disabilities and the ways in which the associations present have found to reorganise themselves. The event ended with a quiz on the themes of the meeting and feedback, which we had previously prepared, and with a promise to reorganise a similar activity in presence, when the situation allows.
This was the second edition of "Un Caffè con ESN Pisa" (the first one was held on the occasion of the day for the elimination of violence against women) and also this time the event was very interesting and nice. We will certainly repeat the format in the future to address other issues.
