Today, 9th May 2022, a hackathon or co-creation session was held in Turin, in the framework of the DECIDO project, dedicated to the reception of Ukrainian refugees on the territory of Piedmont and on the city of Torino. It emerged that this type of emergency has brought to light a new type of emigration, mainly composed of women with children, who intend to stay in the host country – in this case Italy – for a short period. Institutions have been hardly responding to all the requests for a residence permit or for the translation of certificates into Italian, as well as to the need for Ukrainian cultural mediators. Even if there are few unaccompanied minors, the number of children with mild intellectual or motor disabilities, psychiatric or autistic disorders, as well as elderly people with health problems appears to be considerable: the reception of these people by the health services should undoubtedly be improved. Finally, the data coming from the Piedmont Region, the Municipalities, the Civil Protection, the Prefectures and the local Ukrainian community do not coincide regarding the presence of refugees fleeing the war on the territory of Piedmont and Turin: this is most likely due to the fact that not all Ukrainian refugees arriving in Piedmont register at the police headquarters, as most of them are hosted by relatives already residing in Piedmont. Therefore, there is a problem of communication and a difference in points of view, which is not an obstacle but an asset: it is only necessary to create an information hub that gathers many different voices, capitalising on information from several sources. The need to develop a multilingual portal, fed by data from organisations, associations, citizens and families, is therefore beginning to emerge: this should be a way to ensure the permeability between the different spheres of the civil society, by identifying the concrete needs of Ukrainian refugees in order to help them in the best possible way. This will be the starting point for the next co-creation sessions.
Watch the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhvgS0ZV_rc&t=31s