Focolare Movement

ROM, from evicted to included

Jul 28, 2015

Mayor of Alghero, Italy, Mario Bruno, recounts how they dealt with the necessary removal of a camp, working with the ROM to find a better answer.

For several years the ROM camp has needed to be removed because of serious health and environmental issues, but it was no easy task given the fact that it was home to thirty families. Mario Bruno, Mayor of Alghero, decided to involve the families themselves in choosing a new location for the camp. There are many unemployed people in Alghero and there are also many people on the list for a house. So, as the Mayor says, it can be difficult to make people understand “that there are specific funds, and sometimes we all have to take to heart social inclusion and sometimes take decisions that are unpopular that are sometimes not understood.” “The 30 ROM minors are just as important to me as each and every Algherese. And I have to try to show with facts that this is possible,” the Mayor went on, “and I have to help the Algheresi to take this step knowing full well that I hold all the problems in my heart and not only those of one side.” Concretely, finding solutions for the Algheresi is one way of showing this value for people. He did it by announcing a 3 million and six hundred thousand euro financing toward the construction of 28 dwellings for Algeresi citizens. BrAs a politician, at times Bruno finds himself in difficult situations which he says he tries to face “with common sense, delving into adminstrative decisions without skipping over them, because we are here to defend everyone’s good and not only our own, we are only administrators.” The Mayor felt the “need of coming to a solution in front of the complexity of the moment we are going through (. . .) in which you can be part of the answer and I believe that this answer can be given individually but also collectively, and giving a collective answer means living for a good that goes beyond us.” Watch the Video – original soundtrack in Italian https://vimeo.com/133758828

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