To mark its 12th anniversary, Fondazione con il Sud organized the event ‘Con il Sud, Prima e Dopo’ (With the South, Before and After). From 11 to 13 October 2018, we brought international foundations and foreign press correspondents to see some of the projects supported by the Foundation over the years that are transforming the Calabrian region.
The tour provided a unique opportunity to explore and share stories from a region of Italy actively building a solidarity-driven economy, free from conventional rhetoric and mainstream groupthink. From Lamezia Terme, with the young people of Rom Lamezia Football Team, run by the Comunità Progetto Sud; to the Locride area, with Goel Group and the cooperatives countering the ‘ndrangheta through alternative, ethical economic models; to Rosarno, where young Italian and foreign farmers from the Consorzio Macramè cultivate confiscated from organized crime, and where MEDU, Medici per i Diritti Umani (Doctors for Human Rights) provides medical assistance to workers exploited by illegal labour brokers (caporali). The visit concluded on 13 October at the Father Pino Puglisi Centre in Polistena. The event featured an interview conducted by journalist Giovanni Minoli with the Public Prosecutor of Catanzaro, Nicola Gratteri, alongside Don Pino Demasi, Emergency, and the men and women who brought new life to a building confiscated from a local mafia boss.
