The Citizen Protection Advisor, Aaron Canochaired the awards ceremony VII Police and Fire Journalism Award, which took place in the hemicycle of the town hall. Some awards that in this edition have highlighted the unwanted loneliness of the elderly after the increase in interventions that effect the local police Yes Firefighters with people who live alone at home. The winners are the journalist of lift-EMV, Jose Miguel Vigara, with its report “A battalion against unwanted loneliness”, published on April 4; and the COPE Valencia journalist, isabelle moreno, for the report “Unwanted Solitude. A pandemic in times of covid”, issued on February 23.
As president of the jury, Asuncion Perez, Defender of the Mayor of the City Hall of Valencia, emphasized the need to combat the loneliness of the elderly and underlined the complementarity of the two award-winning works: that of Isabel Moreno, which highlights the large number of people living alone and the work carried out by associations, and that of José Miguel Vigara, who tells about the initiative to put an end to this problem of centers for the elderly. “We are a generation that suffers and we do not recognize loneliness because we do not want to recognize the failure of our families who do not take care of us,” explained Pérez, who considers it essential to speak of this problem for solutions to arrive.
I remember yours
After recovering his prize from the hands of Joseph-Vincent Herrerahead of the local police of Valencia, Vigara remembered his parents, now older, to whom he dedicated this award with great emotion along with his wife and their two children.. He also addressed his thanks to Felipe Peña and Pedro Sánchez Rosell, two police officers close to him, to whom he wanted to express his gratitude to all the agents who fight against the loneliness of the elderly. He recognized them all for “the great work you do with vulnerable people, especially with children and the elderly”.
Isabel Moreno, for her part, received the Fire Inspector Award amador jimenez and he took the opportunity to thank the work done by the associations, the focus of his journalistic work. He asked them to continue “to force the media to tell what is happening, to be able to raise awareness and prevent people from being alone, because no one who wants to be accompanied deserves to be alone, especially those who took care of us before”. .”
Social function
To close the event, Aarón Cano underlined “the social function of the media, bringing to the table issues as important and unrecognized as suicide and mental health, as well as others such as the unwanted loneliness that suffers every time the largest part of our society. ”. A problem that, as the city councilor indicated, “became apparent as a result of the pandemic, but it was already there”.
The Citizen Protection Councilor took advantage of the act to recognize and thank the important work of the municipal workers of the security and prevention forces, social services and centers for the elderly, who are responsible for caring for the most vulnerable people. most vulnerable in the city”.
Finally, Cano underscored the idea that “to end a problem like loneliness, we must come together and join forces with all of us, not divide ourselves”, and said that to face this problem “it will take be necessary to build a great alliance in which we are able to face the challenges that society presents to us, such as loneliness, or others such as mental health or suicide”.
.