Palermo’s Civic Migrant Assistance Center named after Lucia Pepe

Last Updated: October 11, 2024

Il Centro assistenza migranti del Civico di Palermo porta il nome di Lucia Pepe

The healthcare center for migrants, which is also the simple operative unit of the Infectious Diseases department for vulnerable populations, at building 10B of the Civic Hospital, is named after Lucia Pepe. According to the head Tullio Prestileo and all those who knew her and worked with her, it couldn’t be otherwise.

Lucia, a woman with a generous heart and exemplary professional, graduated in Modern Languages and Cultures in 2011 and in Languages for Communication and International Cooperation in 2015, dedicated her life to spreading values of social justice and solidarity. In her short but intense life, because at only 34 years old (on September 19, 2023) a disease took her away, she was a cultural mediator at the Asp and in many other local realities. She talked to men and women who came from afar in search of a different and better future and helped them express their thoughts and needs. In their languages, the young people who came from the sea told Lucia about the risks they had taken to arrive in Sicily. And she made them feel at home, explained to them how to have an identity even on documents, how to take care of themselves, how to find a job, how to find a place in this new world.

“I had met her without knowing she was the daughter of the head of the Hospice of the Civic, Nuccio Pepe. I remember the love, dedication, and professionalism she put into her work. She was an example for everyone,” says Tullio Prestileo, “and now in the center where I spend my days, I almost feel her scent, as if she were here with us. Actually, I believe she really is.”

The center was born from the experience conducted within a general hospital, carried out in collaboration with a city network of associations, engaged in caring for migrant populations. Considering the vulnerability of these populations, the difficulty of access to healthcare facilities, and the linguistic and cultural barriers, a new organizational model was designed with the collaboration of a network of peripheral welcoming centers that refer patients with the aim of offering screening for sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, management of pathologies, even non-infectious ones, care, and follow-up. In addition to clinical and care actions, the Infectious Diseases unit for vulnerable populations, together with the Foreigners’ Assistance Center, carries out activities aimed at socio-sanitary integration.

At the unveiling of the plaque, by the hand of the health director, Domenico Cipolla, and the administrative director, Vincenzo Barone, a strong emotion is felt in the air. Everyone feels it, especially mom Giuseppina and dad Nuccio who look up at the sky and surrender to the caress that Lucia is giving them. She is happy and thanks everyone, not only because they always remember and love her, but above all because they continue her project on earth which she, elsewhere, continues to carry out.

Those who loved her, her parents, Nuccio and Giuseppina, and all her friends, decided to establish an association called La Casa di Lucia with the intention of continuing the commitment of the young woman by promoting values of hospitality, equality, international cooperation, and sustainable development of the environment and helping concretely the populations of Africa. And from now on, her friends who come from the sea, as she called them, will enter that department and read on the door the name of Lucia, who, perhaps they do not know, will be there hidden to support them and watch over them, as she always did.