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Paths Through Diversity and Equity: A story of professional and social commitment in the fight against Covid-19 in Italy and AIDS in Africa
Paths Through Diversity and Equity: A story of professional and social commitment in the fight against Covid-19 in Italy and AIDS in Africa
Paths Through Diversity and Equity: A story of professional and social commitment in the fight against Covid-19 in Italy and AIDS in Africa
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Paths Through Diversity and Equity: A story of professional and social commitment in the fight against Covid-19 in Italy and AIDS in Africa

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SILVIA BIGNAMINI: Born in Monza in 1975, she graduated with a degree in Medicine and Surgery in 2000 and specialized in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine in 2004 at the University of Milan-Bicocca. She lived and worked in Africa for 12 years, first in Zimbabwe and then in Mozambique. She is committed to the fight against AIDS and malaria, which are the leading causes of mortality in these countries.
In 2015, she completed a Master’s degree with the University of Liverpool in International Management of Health Systems. Her international professional development and experience ranges from work as a physician in the field, to that of consultant for healthcare management, and finally to her work with the WHO, where she dealt with planning and monitoring of health systems. She returned to Italy permanently in 2018, and later started working as a medical director of a religious healthcare institution in Bergamo where she experienced the Covid-19 virus epidemic first hand.

The story contained in this book is that of a life path guided by the search for challenging situations and oriented towards helping those most in need. The attraction to Africa, since childhood, is the motivation to become a doctor. The willingness to change and to experience out-of-the-ordinary contexts, shared also with her partner, pushes her to various departures and returns. The book describes events and moments that have determined and characterized her personal and professional behaviour. The notes do not follow a chronological order but one of emotional and motivational connections. Life choices are driven by the values of service to others and the desire for continuous learning. The positive examples of some of the directors she has met are included, while the lights and shadows of the systems and organizations in which the author worked are also highlighted. The recent occurrence of the pandemic in Italy makes her relive sensations she dealt with during some African experiences, which she treasures in order to courageously face the changes that the virus requires from us today.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherHomeless Book
Release dateJul 23, 2021
ISBN9788832762181
Paths Through Diversity and Equity: A story of professional and social commitment in the fight against Covid-19 in Italy and AIDS in Africa

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    Paths Through Diversity and Equity - Silvia Bignamini

    PRESENTATION

    By Flavio Sangalli, University of Milano Bicocca

    I have known Silvia Bignamini since her childhood through my many years of friendship with her parents. I was thus able to follow the educational and professional path that has characterized her up to the present day and, in this, I saw the distinctive features of the testimonies of her professional and personal life that are promoted by this series of books.

    The text that she has written corresponds very well to these characteristics, which, among other things, finds a great correspondence with the organizational and personal behaviours defined in my last book of management (High performance, Ed. Mursia 2020.)

    The path of professional and social commitment of Silvia Bignamini is in fact characterized by strong motivating values that have given a purpose to her choices and actions. They are the values of ethics, service to others, and professional quality. They are accompanied by a great willingness to change, to experience challenging contexts and situations, to the availability of continuous learning and continuous training to always cultivate the best professionalism that you can put in the field.

    Particularly significant are the accolades given to all those people who have been her teachers, being, for her, positive examples in the profession and in life.

    Silvia Bignamini is a manager with a strong social and professional motivation for the importance she gives to the characteristics described above and because she sees the value of us, of the team to achieve results.

    And with a typically feminine sensitivity that characterizes her, she knows how to express gratitude and recognition also to her partner, children and parents, and members of her emotional team that have supported her so much in reaching her professional and social goals.

    FOREWORD

    By Sister Anna Maria Villa

    It takes courage to recount one’s own history and experiences during a period of crisis. It’s complicated. It’s destabilising.

    It is not unusual in life, as in the sciences and human experiences, to have to review similar circumstances in order to judge, understand, and give meaning to today. Every past step brings us closer to the sense of the present, it is re-decoding, from the three-dimensional thickness to what otherwise would be only a photographic image.

    But if you have to record a story to make sense of it, you have to be honest. Strip the past of the patina of romance, easy labels, excuses, and relive it in the present. In turn, today must have no alibi, no defensive closures.

    It seems to me that Silvia Bignamini has this courage, even when it was a bit uncomfortable to admit certain passages. Sometimes with journalistic tendencies, at other times with more of an actress’s flair for the drama of life that unfolded, she was able to narrate something that is not yet part of our past.

    This, beyond the documentary aspect, may perhaps help someone to find oneself, to see oneself through her experience, to recognize something of oneself and to realise that something good can always happen.

    Introduction

    I have always liked to write. I kept diary pages from elementary school. I still keep boxes full of letters I received from several friends over the years, when there were still no emails, preceded and followed by letters sent by me. When I was 18, they even gave me a book of empty pages that I would fill with my first novel. At the time, I was passionate about the Australian Aborigines and I decided to write about them so that they would not be forgotten. But I agree with what the Polish writer and journalist Kapuściński said, It is wrong to write about someone without at least sharing a little of their life.

    Having not yet had a chance to go to Australia, I, instead, wrote the draft of a novel set in Mozambique, where I lived for 10 years. I had it read and corrected by some friends but then did not take it any further, and it remained in my files on the computer. So it will stay until one day, maybe, when I decide to complete the review and see if something useful comes out of it to be disclosed.

    This narrative is born of chance. A dear family friend, who knew me from an early age, created this series and told me about the idea, which I immediately found interesting. At the same time, last summer, a couple of friends we had met and shared several experiences with in the early years in Mozambique, suggested that I write something about my experience with the virus that causes Covid-19. In Lombardy, and in Bergamo in particular, we were among the first to have lived through the pandemic in Italy and in the world, after China.

    The system was totally unprepared and we would never have thought that we would be in this situation in 2020, when all infectious diseases seemed to be defeated in our developed world. So, I started writing some notes. I started from the present experiences, which then let me relive the memories that came to my mind that were linked to the African experiences, which I still relive with much nostalgia.

    When I returned from vacation and received the concrete invitation to write a narrative for this series, I decided to try, in the times and ways that work and family allowed me. I faced this activity with the tenacity that characterizes me and thanks to which I have carried out some objectives, even in difficult conditions and with the will to see the result achieved.

    I have no pretension, except to share a story, a piece of my life. Those who want to read it will perhaps find themselves in some of the things said, or will take inspiration to communicate their own experiences, with feelings and views just as rich, as is the life of everyone. Among the authors of this series, and also among readers, I would like to create a network of links for an exchange of opinions, a continuous mutual enrichment. I believe in the value of giving and receiving different considerations and points of view, each with its own validity. Together we think better, we face things with more courage and less loneliness.

    What I have learned from the experiences abroad, and that I would like to take with me everywhere, is that our bonds are not only those forged with family or in the school/work context where we spend most of our time. Relationships are also created with the neighbour, with the person sitting at the bar with whom we exchange a word or two over a coffee, even if we do not know each other, even if the interaction lasts only a few minutes. In that brief meeting there may be something useful, a different point of view that we had not thought of before, and in any case, the certainty that we are never alone.

    When I lived in Zimbabwe for six months, I felt alone, with so many fears but I always found the necessary help. In a moment of sadness, in the apartment in the capital where I went back on weekends to rest a bit, the neighbours upstairs, a couple with a little girl, came to visit me one evening. They handed me a glass of wine and said I could always knock on their door. This small gesture made me feel less alone and I promised myself that from then on, I would always pay attention to the lonely people because even a smile could make all the difference.

    I felt it appropriate to structure the narrative as notes of my journey, in an order that is not chronological, but that recalls particularly significant events in my life. The memories came while I was in the midst of living in the most recent situation, and the act of putting them in writing increased the awareness of, and comparisons to certain behaviours and examples followed.

    The idea of the book and its design is due to friends Vittoria Giovannini and Fabian Ribezzo. They shared a bit of the creativity that characterizes their interesting work in the cinema with me. I also thank the photographer Giovanni Diffidenti, with whom I shared some African adventures. He made himself available to offer his photographs for the book, although for this edition it was not possible to use them. I am grateful to Flavio Sangalli, who tirelessly urged me to publish this story at the established times. In addition, I warmly thank Sister Anna Maria who found the time to read the book and write the preface, despite the many institutional commitments.

    A special thanks goes to my friend Marleen who voluntarily did the English translation of the book and gave me the opportunity to make some improvements compared to the first Italian edition. In this process of continuous exchange we ended up knowing each other better and also improving each other’s respective language skills.

    The final acknowledgments are for my partner Giovanni, my children Alice and Lorenzo and my parents. I owe what I am and what I will be to them.

    20 February 2020,

    the virus is with us

    After China and Germany, with outbreaks immediately controlled, there was Codogno. It was the first case in Italy confirmed for Covid-19 virus disease. Patient zero, who introduced the virus from China or Germany, was never found and perhaps there were more than one. Asymptomatic people, or those with mild symptoms, which do not need hospitalization, could be unaware carriers of the virus and contribute to the transmission chain of infections. One sneeze or cough without putting anything in front of the mouth and nose, or the hand that becomes a vehicle of contagion through touching other people or things, are just a few ways of transmitting the virus, and for which there is now evidence.

    Cremona was also impacted, but in Bergamo, the situation still seemed a bit remote. Among colleagues, some felt relatively safe, while others were already extremely alert and were beginning to doubt the indications of the WHO applied to our contexts of epidemics and red zones. Several healthcare workers commuted from Nembro and Alzano and every day wondered if they would come to work the next day. The rescue and law enforcement agencies were, in fact, already preparing for the isolation of these municipalities, waiting only for the order to make it official.

    I, in my first experience as a medical director, felt very much under pressure. On the one hand, there was a need to continue to provide people with healthcare services, and on the other, there was a lack of reliable information about the scenarios that we could expect. Then came the recommendations from the WHO for the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect healthcare workers, which were soon also adopted by the Ministry of Health and the Lombardy Region.

    I asked myself many questions, the result of my background knowledge and specialized training in hygiene and preventive medicine. I exchanged some emails with my former colleagues from the WHO. Watch out for virus transmission in the hospital, they told me. All right, we’re following your lead. I said. For more clarification, I also wrote to some of the reference people in the Geneva office, to understand more about what scenarios we could expect, but I never received a response.

    It is interesting, in hindsight, to assess the priorities that had not been identified and ask ‘Why?’. We are in a world where information circulates very quickly and there is an abundance of it. We can know everything about everyone and we have the means to contact anyone in a very short time and at very low cost. We should therefore be able to have the data we need and be able to use it. And yet, that’s not what happened.

    I remember during my time at University. I am not that old, so I am referring to approximately twenty years ago, when, to do research, it was necessary to go to the library physically. Very few had access to the Internet and various sources of documents were paid for. While in the library, we had access as university students.

    Even in the personal sphere, remote communication was not easy. For example, we had a friend who had moved to Brazil where he started some social activities and founded a local Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). In order to communicate, since the phone calls were so expensive, we used cassettes on which we recorded audio messages and we sent those with ordinary mail, with delivery times that even reached over a month. Then came prepaid phone cards that allowed you to make international phone calls at lower prices, for a time of 30 or 60 minutes. It cost, however, 10 or 20 thousand lire, so they were not cheap, considering that as a student, I could not ask much more from my parents who already allowed me to devote myself to study. In that context, when something was considered important, we had to take the time and go and look for more information or talk to the people involved directly.

    Now, with the technological means that

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