I have just collected a few pictures together of Paganica, a devastated town in the earthquake zone approx 4 kms west of L'Aquila. I took these shots on our recent Marche Chapter club run when we transported nearly a ton of dog food to the refuge there (which is currently housing 423 dogs.)
First there was the earthquake and subsequent tremors, then came the rain and the mud, more recently there have been major health problems for those people living in the tendopoli and now those same people are dealing with sub tropical temperatures.
As we were driving back through the tendopoli I saw an old man with his head in his hands sitting on his plastic chair outside his tent, in front of him on a plastic table was a pot plant. I cried. Maybe you had to be there.
The Marche Fundraising team will not forget the plight of these people and we will not stop trying to raise money for them by any (legal) means - will you help?
The people of L'Aquila still need your support and will do for a very long time to come so if you have just two pounds to spare and a question you can ask then please join in with the fun of the quiz and give just a little bit more of your hard earned!!
Thank you,
Moxie
Gallery
Location
Back To Top
ITALY Magazine - the n.1 magazine for lovers of all things italian
istos srl - web development and social media / +39 0932 950222 / Via Sicilia 72, 97014 Ispica (RG), Italia
There are 2 replies to this post
Thanks Moxie
For me, it was the people living in the gardens of their strong looking modern houses. The fear.
I was speaking with a Protezione Civili volunteer on Wednesday, he'd just returned from his 3 day shift there. He said that the mood has changed. People who before were trying to make the best of a bad situation are now looking beaten. They are all tired, their heads are now low. They've now been sharing 6 manned tents for 7 weeks. There was evidence 2 weeks ago of wooden cabins arriving, and many houses have now been declared as safe for habitation. There are however many who'll be in the tents until the autumn. Business is still disrupted, normal life there cannot yet resume.
Help is still needed.
Every little bit of cash that this quiz will raise is going from the Red Cross in the UK to a dedicated fund for the L'Aquila Croce Rossa
air con and a bit more
they are moving in air conditioners to the tent cities... so good news
tents are tents though and am sure the wooden cabins will be a much better choice... however even with legislation giving power to the government or the civile protection to do things there are always difficulties with taking over land to put these things on...
the difficulties for people making that jump in their heads to be able to be inside a building again is something that is going to take time... however modern buildings built privately in that area in fact all of abruzzo and buildings that were restored within the regulations did not fall down or kill anyone... little comfort for those that are now insecure in that belief today... but of the buildings that fell there have just been two reasons...corruption with public funded projects and old unrestored properties ... yes there will be a few exceptions... unrestored because this is a very poor under populated area
however the problem will not go away easily... L'Aquila is a very poor area.in a sense the only thing keeping it going is that it was assigned as the capital of the region of Abruzzo which is how it keeps getting money in for its survival... Pescara would be a better choice for Abruzzo as a whole but a disaster for the city of L'Aquila.
Abruzzo is a strange region as well in other senses... assigned in an economic sense as part of the south of Italy... as a way to increase European funding... its the only southern region that has manged to increase its well and measured on a scale it now runs at just 88% of the 100 per cent marker of Lombardy i think it is in terms of wealth and income... the rest of the south has totals around the 33 % and if you did it by province L'Aquila would most probably be way down there too.. its sustained by the coastal area of abruzzo and for some strange reason avezzano a sort of mini boom economy in high tech research and production...
so its a real problem for people from there ... to get back on their feet again because it was already having problems before... a massively declining population, mass emigration in the past and really a place without a future... that this quake has put the area on the map is a benefit... and this is hard to put in any way that makes sense... its the death toll that has made it possible for the place to have such an interest within Italy... because even though its just an hour from Rome and the centre of national government without that devastating figure am not sure anything much would have been done....
am sure in the future the effort of those that have stayed on this and with this since the start... this Marche group... will see the benefits and the word will out on you... and you will have a place forever in the hearts of those that you have met and helped...