“I’m not a politician, I’m not an expert, I’m just a father who has seen his life change forever. And two years ago I lost my daughter, a girl full of life, full of curiosity, generous, able to see the good even when there was none. From that day my world stopped, but I also couldn’t stay still.” As Gino Cecchettinfoundation president Giulia Cecchettin at a hearing in the femicide commission two years after the death of her daughter who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend Filippo Turetta.
“Today everyone is close to me because it’s my second year but for me there are no anniversaries and every day is an anniversary. And my mind goes there, several times a day. For me today is no different from yesterday and it will not be different from tomorrow,” explained the girl’s father.
“Changing the culture that produces violence”
“An event like this – he added – changes you forever. There is no future, in fact the future is taken away from you, the future is made of hugs, memories and days that will no longer exist. Which I must somehow fill. So I chose to react, to give meaning to the pain that risks destroying me. From this the Giulia Cecchettin foundation was born. Not to cultivate the memory of that pain, but to turn it into a commitment. Because if we don’t change a culture that produces violencewe will continue to mourn another Giulia, another family, another shattered life.”
Gino Cecchettin opposes eternal mourning: “Despite suffering, life is worth living”
by Zita Dazzi
“Recognize the sacred value of every person’s freedom”
He later explained that “when school is quiet, social media does the talkingtoxic models speak, silence adults speak. We have a duty to give young people the tools to adapt, not just ideas for learning. I believe that education is the only possible systematic response. We cannot delegate to the courts what belongs to schools, families, cultural institutions and in classrooms in training we can teach our children to recognize violence before it turns into a signal, before it becomes a tragedy.”
My commitment – he continued – and that of the foundation arises from the desire to prevent other parents from going through what I experienced, but also in the hope that one day the foundation that gives names to murdered girls will no longer be necessary because we will learn to recognize the sacred value of everyone’s freedomsacred value of life. We cannot change what has happened, but we can change what will happen – he concluded – To Giulia and all Giulia to come, I ask you to make a brave choice, to believe in education as the first form of justice, as the true form of prevention”.
Filippo Turetta’s letter: “I withdraw the appeal, I cannot relieve the pain in any way”
by Rosario Di Raimondo
“Affective education is not ideology but civilization”
Because “talking about emotional education – he stressed – means teaching children to know themselves, manage emotions, recognize boundaries and ask for and give consent. It means teaching that love is not possession, that power is not domination, that respect is the basis of every relationship. I’m not here to ask for more punishment or harsher laws. Justice is necessary, but it always happens later. I’m here to talk about what might happen first. Prevention and therefore education. We at this foundation believe that the only long-term response to violence is to educate respect, empathy and mutual freedom. And this can only happen in schools, places where people, not just students, are trained. This is not a question of ideology, but a question of civilization.”
