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Association
Life  |
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Associazione
del Bambino in Ospedale (Abio)
The
Association for the hospitalized child was founded in 1978
With
Abio the right to a smile
400,000
voluntary work hours at the service of
sick children
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Remember Patch
Adams, the clown-doctor who amused children? Abio is not
like him but its aim is identical: give comfort to
hospitalized children.
Abio – an onlus formed in 1978 – was in fact founded in
order to promote humanization within hospitals and to make
the often traumatic impact of hospitalization less dramatic
for both the child and his family.
So as to reduce these traumas a goup of volunteers joined
together within Abio giving birth to an organization that
welcomes the child at admittance, helps him adapt to
hospital life, assists him during medical examinations by
entertaining and distracting him during the wait,
co-operates with the medical and paramedical staff by
preparing the sick child for the various treatments he must
undergo with material and psychological techniques that have
been carefully choosen.
Besides all this work performed on the single child, Abio
also carries out material work such as making the wards more
comfortable with decorations, games, and choreographies to
help the child overcome separation from his mother.
Abio also has a third role: it helps the parents, whenever
possible, and tries to make the situation less dramatic by |
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lending a
friendly ear and hear about family problems and by acting as
a link in a new unknown place giving parents information on
family rights and services.
The following figures giustify the work that has been
carried out: 400,000 hours of voluntary work per year, 400
hours for volunteer training, hundreds of toys given to
hospital wards at the disposal of sick children.
Abio is currently operating in 34 hospitals in Italy: Milan,
Monza, Cuneo, Como, Vizzolo Predabissi, Lodi, Merate, Mantua,
Bergamo, Sondrio, Castelfranco, Savigliano, Avola, Catania,
Palermo, Trieste, Biella, Crema, Magenta, Domodossola,
Verona, Turin, Bari, Bologna, Naples, Pescara, Esine,
Mondovì, Ragusa and Caltagirone.
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Everything
is centred around
the hospitalized child
Abio
organized a conference in Milan at the end of November
on "the Hospitalized Child, Strategies and
Competences for a Child-centred Approach". The
topics dealt with are extremely up-to-date such as
those concerning communication, communicational
techniques and the role of volunteers within hospitals.
The themes that were discussed during the conference
have been collected in a handy dossier in which Abio
has published the papers of the various speakers. Of
the utmost interest was the speech held by the
Theodoroa Foundation on the role of the clown doctor,
a theme that was recently brought to public attention
by the successful film Pathc Adams.
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Safe
toys , safe children
Safe
toys? Safe children. The question is: how can we be
sure that children won’t hurt themselves? There are
some regulations that must be followed: in Italy
instructions must be written in Italian,  toys
must bear the CE mark, some must have marks like IMQ
stamped on them, the manufacturers name must be
indicated as well as the age for which the toy is
recommended. Toys containing chemical products must
specify that they can only be used under adult
supervision.
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Christmas
present?
Going on television
According
to the magazine "Advertising" the most
yearned for present for children is going on TV. The
desire to be in the limelight reaches its peak in 16
and 18 year olds independently of the social class
they belong to.
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The song
"Il Cuoco Pasticcione"(the Messy Cook) wins
the Zecchino d’oro
children’s song festival
An
eight-year-old girl from Locorotondo in the province
of Bari named Federica Colucci won the 43rd edition of
the Zecchino d’oro with the song "Il cuoco
pasticcione" (the Messy Cook) written by Mario
Manasse and Marco Mojana, a catchy tone about a cook
who prefers tasting to cooking!
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