Claudio Gubitosi receives the 'De Sanctis Award for Social Health'. The ceremony will take place in Rome, at Palazzo Spada, seat of the Council of State.
The founder of Giffoni: “A special honor that fills me with pride. For the first time, our value in terms of psychological well-being for the young generations has been institutionally recognized.” Professor De Masi: “In half a century this is the place that has evolved the most and best in the southern context”
Claudio Gubitosi, founder of Giffoni, was awarded the prestigious “De Sanctis Prize for Social Health”. The ceremony took place yesterday afternoon in Rome, at Palazzo Spada, seat of the Council of State. Five winners of the second edition of the annual prize. The award ceremony was conducted by Cesare Fassari, director of Quotidiano Sanità.
The authoritative jury, chaired by Walter Ricciardi, academic and scientific advisor to the Minister of Health, elected the winners: Sofia Corradi, Roman pedagogue, inspirer and supporter of the Erasmus study project (Institutional Experiences area); Guido Bertolaso, representing the creators and legislators of the Universal Civil Service established by law 6 March 2001, n. 64 (Legislative area);
Giancarlo Perego, representing Fondazione Near Onlus, active in Milan alongside young people in the areas of health, work and inclusion and publisher of the monthly magazine Il Bullone, of which Perego is director (Experiences and good practices area); Laura Dalla Ragione, founder and director of the Eating Disorders Center at Palazzo Francisci Residence, Todi, USL Umbria 1 (Research area) and Claudio Gubitosi, creator of the Giffoni Film Festival in Giffoni Valle Piana (Salerno) dedicated to young people (Experiences and good practices area)
. Director Gubitosi received the award from the hands of the Councilor for Social Policies and Health of the Municipality of Rome, Barbara Funari. Accompanying Claudio Gubitosi was Davide Russo, responsible for institutional relations of Giffoni.
Many representatives of institutions, the world of culture and science were present. Among others, the ceremony at Palazzo Spada was attended by the Secretary General of the Council of State, Sergio De Felice, the President of the Council of State, Franco Frattini, the President of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Silvio Brusaferro, the former President of the Consiglio Superiore di Sanità Franco Locatelli, member of the jury of the Award, the Judge of the Constitutional Court of the Italian Republic Filippo Patroni Griffi, the journalist and author Corrado Augias.
The President of Aci, Angelo Sticchi Damiani, presented the plaque of the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella to Francesco De Sanctis, President of the Foundation: "The Award - said De Sanctis - intends to offer an honorary recognition to particular people or communities or entities that have used their energies to build a better level of health of the community, or, otherwise, to have taken action to remove all those causes, from environmental to social ones, that slow down the progress of the psycho-physical well-being of humanity".
“In over fifty years of activity – declares Claudio Gubitosi – I have received many awards and recognitions of various kinds: all important and for which I am deeply grateful. I must confess to you, however, that yesterday's honor has for me a very special significance and meaning.
For the first time, in fact, the value of Giffoni for social health has been officially, publicly and I would say also institutionally recognized, the positive impact that my idea has had and still has on the psychological and physical well-being of the millions of boys and girls who are part of our community. Giffoni is good for your health: I have always said it and I will never tire of repeating it. This fact has become particularly evident in the last two years.
In the midst of the pandemic first and the war in Ukraine later, Giffoni never failed in its mission to stay close to the kids and my team and I worked hard to reach the young people in their rooms during the lockdown and guarantee them safe conditions during the Festival that never stopped. We continued to give moments of joy, lightheartedness and serenity even in the most difficult years for our society: all of this helped our kids and allowed them to feel better, in every sense.
I like to think that the “De Sanctis Award” received yesterday is a confirmation of all this, a public and prestigious recognition for the commitment that I have been carrying out for many years in favor of the new generations and the important results obtained on this front. I would like to thank once again Gianni Letta, patron of the Award, the Commission chaired by Walter Ricciardi, academic and scientific advisor to the Minister of Health, who assigned the awards and my dear friend Domenico De Masi who presented and supported my candidacy”.
The meaning and reasons for the recognition of Gubitosi and Giffoni in the speech by Professor Domenico De Masi who illustrated the uniqueness of an idea and how this has transformed the context in which it has acted in over fifty years of history: “Half a century ago, the modernization of Southern Italy was still entrusted to heavy industry – said Professor De Masi – In these same years Claudio Gubitosi started an experiment of socio-economic development based on cultural growth. Thus began an extraordinary operation of social health unique in its kind. The name of Gubitosi is strongly linked to the name of Giffoni Valle Piana, his hometown, a rural municipality of 12 thousand inhabitants, in the province of Salerno.
Here, in 1971, the Giffoni Film Festival was born, now famous throughout the world. The protagonists and jurors are children and young people from all over Italy and the planet. As certified by the director Francois Truffaut, of all the film festivals, and there are many, this is the most necessary.
The internationality of the event is manifested through intense relationships between the jurors and the greatest authors of world cinema. But not only that: through the involvement of 35 countries, the idea of Giffoni has been exported all over the world. Many projects have been added to the idea of the festival over the years:
Giffoni Innovation Hub, dedicated to the world of startups and innovation, Giffoni Opportunity linked to training and professional placement opportunities, Giffoni Digital Department, which intercepts the frontier of quality audiovisual productions. The headquarters and synthesis of all this is the Giffoni Multimedia Valley, the most impressive structure for production, training and innovation, which offers hundreds of people the ideal place to train and engage professionally in the fields of entertainment, from writing to directing, event organization and communication.
In Giffoni, through the festival and the initiatives connected to it, entire generations of young people have been formed who have been able to review and judge the best of world cinema, who have been able to discuss and compare the essential problems of our time with the most authoritative witnesses of culture, entertainment, politics, society.
At the same time, these witnesses were able to enter the world of the new generations, appreciating their values and potential. This original and multifaceted cultural work that is linked to the charismatic and visionary leadership of Claudio Gubitosi, has had an extraordinary economic and image impact on the territory in which it operates, making Giffoni the town that in half a century has evolved more and better in the southern context”.
The “De Sanctis Prize for Social Health” was established in 2021, when the De Sanctis Foundation decided to expand the activity of the “De Sanctis Prize” – which since 2009 has promoted literature and cultural initiatives of Italian and international importance – to other disciplines aimed at promoting the health and well-being of the population. This same objective, in fact, in 1878 had pushed Francesco De Sanctis, then Minister of Public Education, to introduce educational gymnastics in schools.
The identification of the social health perimeter as the locus of action of the initiative draws inspiration from the Ottawa Charter (1986) of the World Health Organization, which states that: “Health promotion goes beyond health care”.
A broad concept of health, similar to that of welfare community, which opens the prospect to the development of models connected with actions and proximity services with high social involvement, capable of guaranteeing the effective improvement of the quality of life of the members of the local community of reference.
In this perspective, the “Social Health Award” identifies each year the best project carried out in the context of actions and good practices for the benefit of a better quality of life and social coexistence of all the components of a community, starting from the weakest groups.
While the first edition was dedicated to the theme of the elderly, this year the focus is on young people.
Chaired by Walter Ricciardi, academic and scientific advisor to the Minister of Health, the jury of the Award is composed of: Gianni Letta (patron of the Award), Franco Locatelli (academic and former President of the Superior Council of Health), Cesare Fassari (director of Quotidiano Sanità), Roberto Burioni (full professor of Microbiology and Virology), Maria Cristina Messa (Minister of University and Research), Maria Chiara Carrozza (president of Cnr), Luigi Ripamonti (editorial manager of Corriere Salute), Domenico De Masi (professor of Sociology of work), Maria Emilia Bonaccorso (adjunct editor-in-chief of Salute&Benessere of Ansa.it), Franco Pesaresi (editorial staff of Social and Health Perspectives), Antonio Gaudioso (head of the technical secretariat of the Minister of Health) and Daniela Minerva (responsible for the Health pages of Repubblica).
The event was organized under the patronage of Egualia (Accessible Pharmaceutical Industries) and in partnership with ABC Farmaceutici, Accord Healthcare, Baxter, EG-Stada, LFM – Laboratorio Farmacologico Milanese, Medac Pharma, Mylan-Viatris, Salf, Towa Pharmaceutical, Zentiva, Aci, Terna, L'Igiene Urbana Evolution, Gruppo Editoriale Athesis and Pro Format Comunicazione.
Article published on 5 October 2022 - 14:20
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