Growth and inclusion: how a web radio gives voice to young patients

A web radio for young people admitted to the 'Perrino' hospital in Brindisi, to tell their emotions and feel protagonists even in the most difficult moments, and admission to a hospital is by definition. The initiative - called "Sio Radioweb - La voce che unisce" (Sio Radioweb - The voice that unites) - is by the Perrino hospital school (Brindisi local health authority) which, for many years, on the tenth floor of the hospital, has been providing an educational service for infants, primary and secondary schools, and children up to 16 who are hospitalised in paediatrics and other wards. The service is offered by the "Cappuccini" Comprehensive Institute of Brindisi - headed by Rosetta Carlino - to these young patients who, in this way, are taken care of, even if they come from schools in the North, with the result that educational activities are not interrupted.

Along with the teaching programmes, the school has also launched this web radio project to create, among the young and very young hospitalised patients, a sense of community and participation, a goal that has prompted the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria Brindisi and the Maestri del Lavoro to provide the first useful tools for the web radio: PCs, mixers, headphones, microphones, etc. Some of the teachers assigned to the hospital school have already started recording some podcasts, which will be followed by some internal test broadcasts and then by the actual landing on the web.

The web radio thus acquires a therapeutic purpose that should not be underestimated, especially for young patients who have been hospitalised for a long time: they know that their voice is heard, that human and emotional intelligence is spread on the web from the hospital, and that the whole hospital experience can also become an experience of growth together with their companions. "With this initiative," explains the president of the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria Brindisi, Laura De Rocco, "we want to testify that business is not only production and economy, but also attention to the territory, to people and above all to future generations. Our donation is a small gesture, but one with great significance: a way of telling the young people that they are not alone, and that their voice deserves to be heard'.