Environmental protection is a business for young people, in the heart of Northern Europe as well as the capital. Think Green Boys is born in Prati district, which translates to: Pensa Verde. They are a few years older than Greta Thunberg, but as a student symbol of the fight against climate change, they share the values and activism that come from small gestures. So they strictly put green helmets, put on pickup pliers, opened a dozen bags and cleaned the dirt from Vial Angelico’s long avenue.
“We want to contribute to help our neighborhood,” explains 26-year-old Agnes Panzieri and a law degree. According to 19-year-old Leonardo Talmoni, an economics student at Sapienza University, “starting at the bottom is the best recipe”. Although the event promoted on social media invited participants to wear “casual clothes”, Leonardo has a plaid jacket, sweater and shirt under the green helmet: “I’m comfortable in my elegance”. We are in north Rome. Under a spring sun, it is Leonardo Maria Ruggieri Masini, Libermament’s president and promoter of action, who explains what it is about: “This is a project created by young people for citizenship. It starts counting again.” There is a way to do it and our role in society is ».
The boys asked them to report the area’s dirtiest roads through the neighborhood social network Nextoor. “We think Facebook was a bit distracted, we wanted to target the progress and the message reaching the residents of the Vittoria district,” Masini says. The list prepared is long: via Tommaso Gulli, via Gabrielle Camoji, via Silvio Pellico, via Monte Nero, via Famagosta and Piazza Marshall Gardens. There are those who then decided to join young environmentalists, such as Barbara Stella, 50: “You make yourself useful and you get to know people in the neighborhood who would not have met otherwise”. The woman has lived in the area for twenty years: “Recently, the cleanliness of the roads here has become very bad.” The sidewalks return to the green helmet, not only litter and cigarette butts, but also a mat for the car, a break pad, jars of baby food and a spoon. “We consumed a whole roll of sacks just to make Via Baletta”, Leonardo Messini is stunned. The slalom is held between bottles of beer, in front of Dante Elghieri Middle School and Tallette High School via Cantoji. “This is disgusting, we are in the third world”, comments lawyer Osvaldo Verrechia, who passes in front of young people in action. And he adds: “Luckily there is someone who does the cleaning, but I pay 500 Euros to Ama every month via Osavia”.
February 20, 2021 | 15:22
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