A social and health remediation project: clinics, school-colonies and kindergartens in Calabria in the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract

In terms of healthcare assistance, the National Association for the Interests of Southern Italy (ANIMI) plays an important role with a particular focus on childhood, guaranteeing social and health assistance to children, including within structures specifically designed for this purpose. Alongside the hygiene and health education work constantly carried out in kindergartens, there are many assistance centre and clinics that have also been created for the benefit of micro-communities in the interior areas of Calabria. Additional significant expressions of the project of social and health remediation can be found in the creation of school-colonies, which provided assistance to children suffering from diseases such as malaria and inflammatory eye disease, and in the foundation of the Diagnostic Institute in Reggio Calabria, which has become a research centre of excellence in the study, prevention and cure of diseases that are very widespread in areas of southern Italy.