Viviana was born in 1949 with Down syndrome.
Her family was well-off: a father, a mother, and an older sister fourteen years her senior.
When school age arrived, Viviana's education was provided by a specialized tutor who came to the house and worked with her privately, guiding her toward a middle school diploma (which she would eventually earn, a few years later). Her first twenty years passed without any institutional centers—she lived almost entirely within her family.
«I have three homes and I get along with everyone. I have so many friends and I do so many things!»
In 1969, when Viviana turned twenty, she was placed in a rehabilitation center run by ANFFAS, where she remains today.«I have three homes and I get along with everyone. I have so many friends and I do so many things!»
Around that time, following the death of a close family member, she suffered from some difficulties that required hospitalization.
Her mother died in 1973, and for several years Viviana lived alone with her father. Given the precarity of their situation, Viviana and her father moved in with her older sister, now married with two children. In 1980, Viviana's father died—she was thirty-one—and she continued living with her sister's family.
In 1989 her sister was forced to move away from Rome, and this would have made it impossible for Viviana to continue attending the ANFFAS center or to access any alternative program.
A relative who had long been close to Viviana and her family offered to take her into her home in Rome. After about a year, Viviana moved into a small residential community, which is now «her home».
Life Today
For the past year, Viviana has lived with several friends in a family-style setting where each person is invited to express themselves—their limits, yes, but above all their gifts. Her days are divided between the community, a day program, and visits with family members, spending some weekends with them to maintain those original bonds.
Monday through Friday, Viviana attends the ANFFAS center in the mornings, where she works in a sewing workshop. About ten young women participate in the workshop, which is run by trained staff—two seamstresses in this case—and coordinated by an educator. The educator works with the center's team to plan appropriate activities: educational outings, films, games and recreation that support and complement the actual work of sewing dish towels, tablecloths, and other items used in the center's dining hall and displayed in exhibitions.
Each afternoon Viviana returns to the community, where she helps with daily household tasks (cooking shifts, washing dishes, tidying rooms) and takes part in activities that vary by day: singing and music, exercise, crafts, and whatever else is thought to help her develop independence and relational skills.
The community does not require specialized staff on site, but nearly everyone who chose to live with Viviana and the other residents has experience working with people with intellectual disabilities.
For specific needs, Viviana is supported by the ANFFAS team and also by a psychologist-educator whom the community identified to design and monitor interventions for her emotional, relational, and psychological growth.
Living in community meant that Viviana had to adapt to shared rhythms—work and leisure—and above all to share a room with another person who faced very similar challenges.
At over forty, it is not easy to change lifelong habits and to live alongside others, especially when the bathroom is occupied or the table seating has shifted again, or the kitchen roster has been reshuffled once more. It took many small steps, day after day, before a real friendship grew between Viviana and her roommate. Each day that solidarity deepens, and with it, the chances to help each other—trading the role of «big sister» as circumstances demand, learning to know each other better, and like all sisters, bickering when things do not go quite as planned.
In just a year, this new community life has helped Viviana grow tremendously, especially in her ability to be with others (even as it has made her more vulnerable emotionally), while she has also brought to those living with her a wisdom and enthusiasm that once hid behind a gruff exterior.
At least one weekend a month, Viviana stays in the community to join the others in largely recreational activities: outings, time with friends, celebrations.
This new responsibility toward herself and others, though it creates some anxiety, lets her feel more fully alive.
She says: «I have three homes and I get along with everyone. I have so many friends and I do so many things!».
- Chiara Frassineti, 1992
===FINE===