The European Network of Family-Friendly Municipalities promoted by ELFAC organized a conference in Bergamo (Italy) on Friday 30, September, entitled “Companies and Territories: The Future is Called Family”, where the award was delivered.
Denatality, depopulation of rural areas and an ageing population are putting companies and territories to the test. The conference presented significant experiences and good practices for companies and local administrations.
The demographic challenge must be tackled with awareness, in order to retain young talent, encourage the formation of new families and guarantee a future for communities, as Regina Maroncelli, president of ELFAC, said in the conclusion of the event, where Raul Sanchez, secretary general, talked on “The European Network of Family Friendly Municipalities, a project for Europe”.
At the end of the event both Maroncelli and Sanchez delivered the European Large Family of the Year Award 2021 to the family Mosca Pesenti, together with Mario Sberna and her wife Egle, president of the Italian Large Families Association ANFN.
Diego and Patrizia Mosca Pesenti are parents of three children… and much more since they became a foster family, opened for many other children. They told us his story:
“We have always had the dream of becoming a large family (God permitting, of course) and to date, after 9 years of marriage, 14 children have been born or “reborn” within these walls. Three of them are our natural children: Elisa, 7 years old, Federico, 5, and Alessandro, 15 months old. They were born inside the experience of welcoming many children and young people in need, and for them it is normal to have a family regularly made up of 7 or 8 people, with brothers and sisters who come and go from time to time; this lifestyle has led, particularly the eldest, to ask herself questions, to wonder why not everyone can live with their mum and dad, and, above all, to share time, spaces, games… and parents!
We have hosted pre-adolescents or adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15; some of them are now ‘grown up’, and live outside the community, working and trying to become adults, striving every day to achieve the much desired autonomy. We had also children between 4 and 10. We can now say from experience that the length of time children stay in the community is directly proportional to their age. The younger children have always stayed for a few months or a year at the most, while the older ones have stayed with us for up to 5 years or more. Some of them have even continued to stay after the age of 18, thanks to the “administrative continuations” granted by the Juvenile Court.”.
The European Large Family of the Year Award recognizes every year since 2015 a large family whose life and activities are exemplary, showing up values in society.
