The irresponsible use of money, usury and the drama of gambling — dubbed the heroin of the new millennium — claim a number of victims that has been steadily growing in recent years. The harm they do, unfortunately, affects not only the individual, but also those close to them. In fact, it is estimated that for every victim, there are seven others–parents, siblings, children, or friends–forced to suffer with him or her.
Information and, above all, prevention, are the best weapons to start fighting these tragic phenomena.
For this reason, “Only If You Can”, the awareness-raising campaign on the responsible use of money initiated and promoted in 2016 by OSA (Adventist Social Work), in collaboration with the ADVENTUM Foundation and supported through a portion of 8xmille funds, continues this year.
The initiative is fully supported by the Seventh-day Adventist Christian Church because the underlying values of this outreach and prevention project marry well with Christian stewardship of life.
The campaign includes a series of supporting actions and tools for promotion throughout the country:
- Free Help Line service, both telephone through the FREE PHONE AND CELL PHONE NUMBER, 800.810.123, and e-mail response, dedicated to all people who want general or more specific information on credit access tools or on their own personal difficulties.
- Theater workshop course, which will involve about 20 students from 3 Roman high schools, with the main objective of providing them with an in-depth study on the topic of responsible use of money. It will be the boys themselves, appropriately guided, who will devise a show “by the boys for the boys,” which will target all the students of the involved high schools, faculty and families.
- Only If You Can Tour, which will touch some 20 Italian cities, from north to south, with a camper that will have a traveling desk inside with a volunteer from the ADVENTUM Foundation or the Anti-usury Outpatient Clinic able to provide an initial response. In addition, an entertainment show will be held at each stage, recalling the theme of responsible use of money, at the conclusion of which gadgets and information materials about the campaign will be distributed.
- Collaboration with Public Bodies and Non-Profit Organizations to carry out projects to combat gambling and care for people addicted to gambling (ludopathy). To this end, a call will be issued to grant a portion of the 8xmille to support those projects that can truly generate positive change with respect to these pressing issues.
- Opening of new help desks for over-indebted people; in addition to the two desks already active in Rome and Milan, ADVENTUM Foundation is working to identify and train new volunteers in order to be able to provide a more timely response also to requests from other territories and from the Public Entity itself to be able to receive support in this regard.
Through all the tools of the Only If You Can awareness campaign, the Adventist Christian Church hopes that more and more people will learn to make conscious choices and have a better quality of life.
To stay updated on tour stops, all projects, and more, visit solosepuoi.ottopermilleavventisti.it
