Green thumbs in Scampia, the land of the clans. Volunteers saving a park and building community.

An association has revived Corto Maltese Park, which for years, due to the lack of institutional support, lay abandoned in a state of complete disrepair, where drug dealers and addicts reigned supreme. Today, however, there is a community garden, flowerbeds, and the perimeter walls have been decorated with murals.

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SCAMPIA SOCIAL GARDEN

There are two things, very Non-waste, that make the project unique.Green thumbs' of the association of the same name Scampia, one of the most abandoned and crime-ridden neighborhoods on the outskirts of Naples. First of all, the main objective: recover green spaces, trees included. Starting from Corto Maltese Park, abandoned and destined to become only a place of violence. Or of shady dealings. Secondly, the idea that even in such a difficult neighborhood, where civic sense is reduced to a minimum and where the only law that prevails is that of the clans, it is possible to do something truly sustainable, with one word as a compass: Together. 

GREEN THUMBS SCAMPIA

Yes, together we are stronger. Convincing and effective. Capable of challenging absent or deaf institutions. And together we also rebuild the fabric of community bonds, otherwise wasted and frayed in thegeneral indifferenceIt's no coincidence that the 'Green Thumbs' movement was born out of the need to experience the greenery of Corto Maltese Park with civic pride, a park that had been neglected for too long.

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CORTO MALTESE PARK

The Corto Maltese park is large 22 thousand square meters and is bordered by four rows of buildings, in the Scampia neighborhood. For years it was reduced to a veritable open-air landfill, where negotiations for the drug dealingThe volunteers they cleaned the streets, flowerbeds, and small gardens. They painted, with the help of children from the Scampia schools, vases and wastebaskets. They installed beautiful wooden benches and carousels. They built elegant yet simple wooden fences, and magpies have even returned to the area.

Then there are the artistic touchesPeppe Landieri, world champion aquarium builder, has built tree trunks for small fountains. Sculptor Vincenzo Giusti has created wooden animals, from frogs to turtles, using fallen tree trunks. And today, Corto Maltese Park is a veritable kingdom of potential change in the heart of Scampia, where the City Council has also made its contribution. How? By overhauling the entire area's lighting and installing LED lights everywhere. Especially at the entrance to the playground, where a large mural warns: "The park of smiling children, where it's not forbidden to feel joy." Joy and gratitude for the 23 volunteers of Pollici verdi per Scampia.

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SCAMPIA SOCIAL GARDEN

The 'Green Thumbs' experience the reappropriation of the park as a real revenge Not only for those who undertook this undertaking—many thought it was crazy—but for the entire neighborhood. It's right that Scampia should begin to gain recognition for all the commendable initiatives it spearheads and finally shed the stigma of being a difficult suburb from which to escape.

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The project is competing for the 2019 edition of the Non Sprecare Award. To learn more about the competition and participate, go to here!

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