Taking care of people and their health, understood in the broadest sense, means paying attention to the relationship that each of us has with our own life journey, especially when it comes to key biographical and existential junctures. First and foremost, that of parenting. In 2016, it was this concept that gave birth to Parole Fertili, a social responsibility project strongly supported by IBSA ITALIA, which today is shared and promoted by the whole Group.
Among the pillars for IBSA are people and care. This is precisely why it promotes projects that specifically contribute to experiencing the different milestones of becoming a parent in a calm and conscious way, respecting individual personal experiences. In line with this approach, Parole Fertili was launched, offering a digital storytelling experiment created to give everyone the chance to tell their often difficult story of becoming a parent and to share it with a virtual community. This community offers help and support in facing the fears, feelings of guilt and obstacles affecting the expectations of the people involved.
This is how the www.parolefertili.it platform came about. Through the platform, users' stories are freely and anonymously collected with the aim of offering a virtual space for expression to those going along the difficult and emotionally complex journey of medically assisted procreation. From here, the project has developed in the constant search for new formats, channels and languages that speak to all potential stakeholders, welcoming different stories and voices and, above all, allowing experiences and information to be shared within the community. Feelings of loneliness and incomprehension are often the greatest difficulty faced by couples who are struggling to have children.
Over the years, Parole Fertili has therefore become a dynamic and constantly evolving project, and today it is one of the main parenting support initiatives promoted by IBSA as part of its CSR. Such is the interest in the project that we wanted to take it 'beyond digital'. So it was that, in 2018, a book was published, entitled "Parole Fertili: Viaggio alla ricerca di un figlio” (Fertile words: Journey in search of a child), distributed for free in medically assisted procreation (MAP) clinics. In 2019, this led to a theatre performance that debuted on 29 November at the Teatro Litta in Milan with the title “Quasi Genitori” (Almost Parents) and which will be shown again as part of the activities promoted by IBSA Foundation in Lugano.