SACMI DONATES A NEW WHEELCHAIR-ACCESSIBLE VAN TO ANTEAS IMOLA

SACMI Imola recently responded to an appeal by Anteas, an Imola-based association providing transport services for disabled persons, by donating a new wheelchair-accessible van. Inaugurated at Christmas and already on the road, this van brings the number of vehicles managed by the association to 11, significantly boosting the quantity and quality of its services.

“Each Christmas”, points out Paolo Mongardi, President of SACMI Imola, “our Cooperative invests in local initiatives, projects, associations, hospitals and schools that provide our communities with essential services, especially those that support the most vulnerable. In 2021 we responded to an appeal by Anteas, an association that provides a steady stream of services to persons who lack self-sufficiency, an increasingly pressing problem in our city”.

This situation is confirmed by Lea Bacci, who has been President of Anteas Imola for three years. “We’ve never stopped working, not even during the worst months of the pandemic. What we’re witnessing”, states Bacci, “is a significant increase in local demand for such services. In fact, our fleet of vehicles was no longer up to the task, as demand is also being driven by a sharp rise in the number of people with neurological illnesses, people who are consequently forced to rely on their families and who need not just care but logistical support as they go about their everyday lives”.

The new van donated by SACMI is a Peugeot Rifter. Equipped with a wheelchair ramp, it will allow Anteas to transport more people and, importantly, make the most of the mobile stairlift the association recently acquired. “This means we can”, explains Lea Bacci, “reach the many people with mobility issues who reside in buildings without lifts; the new vehicle was deliberately chosen for its ability to get into town easily, allowing safe loading and transport of people in wheelchairs. We’re extremely grateful to SACMI for this donation, which underscores a shared principle of solidarity and offers tangible help to those in need”.

Second only to the Ferrara branch in terms of number of kilometers traveled (100,000 km per year and 3,000 individual trips in 2021 alone) and quantity/quality of services provided, Anteas Imola has a 150-strong team, 70 of whom are volunteers. “They include many young people” highlights Lea Bacci, “who give up their free time or are assigned to us by ministerial projects such as the Voluntary Civil Service or the Time to Care project”.

Photo: in the middle Lea Bacci, President of Anteas, with Paolo Mongardi, President of SACMI Imola.