“It’s not time that passes the pain, it’s the pain that passes the time.” With these words full of suffering, Roberto Vecchioni and Daria Colombo presented the Foundation that bears the professor’s surname at Palazzo Marino. Born from the memory of Arrigo, the son who passed away in 2023 at the age of 36 after a long battle with mental illness, the Vecchioni ETS Foundation is not a simple memorial, but a collective act of love. The goal is to transform a private drama into a public mission: to break down the wall of shame and silence that still surrounds mental distress today, to ensure that no child or family ever has to feel alone again.
«We decided to transform our pain into something active, something that could be useful – he explained Daria Colombo, President of the Foundation — the main mission is to fight the stigma: a veil that exists, but which is simply not talked about. When I shamelessly tell what happened to us, suddenly the curtain falls and each person confides their situation to me. Every family has its own story of mental illness: it no longer has to be a secret.”
The fundamental mission they have set themselves? Breaking down the stigma linked to mental illnesses, which still represents an evil in society today. The Foundation aims for a radical cultural change: treating mental health as a health priority equal to that linked to physical problems. Also because the social alarm linked to mental problems is now evident.
«If you get sick with diabetes you shouldn’t be ashamed, if you have appendicitis either – underlined Colombo during the conference – If you get sick with a mental illness you shouldn’t be ashamed of it, and we must ensure that young people are not afraid to ask for help. If we don’t teach them that there is nothing to be ashamed of, young people, believe me, will die.”
In fact, in the world, one in 7 adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 lives with a mental disorder and suicide is the second cause of death, after road accidents, for people between the ages of 15 and 19. Numbers that cannot be ignored. The Foundation (at least for the next two years) will not act as a direct desk, but will work closely with expert organizations such as iSemprevivi Onlus and Fondazione Progetto Itaca. All this with a great purpose: networking to fight together.
«The real secret is the strength of the network – concluded the President – let’s get together to do good, each with our own abilities and characteristics, because it is the only way to be effective where others cannot reach. Let’s work together because the problem is serious: it is a social problem that concerns an entire generation and we have the courage to face it now.”
