Pietro Bartolo

My name is Pietro Bartolo and I was born in Lampedusa on the 10th of February 1956 to a large fisherman’s family. I spent my whole childhood in Lampedusa where I completed elementary and secondary school. At 13, I moved to Trapani in order to attend the liceo scientifico (high school with science and math-based curriculum) and I stayed there until the third year of high school, at which point I decided to move to Syracuse and finish school there. During those years, I used to go home for the summer holidays and I would often work on my father’s fishing boat which was called “Kennedy”. In Syracuse, I had had the great luck of meeting Rita, who was in the same class as me. We stuck together all through our studies, and both graduated from the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Catania in 1983. Immediately after graduating, Rita and I got married and we had three children together. In 1987, I obtained my specialization in Obstetrics and Gynecology, again from the University of Catania, with full marks and honors. Having completed my training, I began working at private clinics in Catania and nearby Syracuse, though very soon I felt the urge to return to my island with my wife and eldest daughter. That’s where I began providing assistance to the people of Lampedusa. In 1991, after having sat and won a public competition exam, I entered the National Health Service as Medical Director at Lampedusa hospital, which I have been ever since. It is precisely in 1991 that Lampedusa became the gateway to Europe for thousands of African migrants who have been coming to our shores ever since. From the very beginning I decided to volunteer and do what I could to welcome and treat those who had made it to dry land in search of a better life, and still today, I am actively involved in assisting refugees. I have been lucky to be able to save many lives and assist in the births of many children, but at the same time, I have had to be witness to less happy circumstances, having had to inspect the dead bodies of those who hadn’t made it to shore. In Lampedusa I was appointed health officer, physician for the Italian Red Cross at Lampedusa airport, head of the medical department of tceived a series of honors for my work for the local and immigrant population of Lampedusa: thhe Air Force and school physician.

I have also played an active part in the island’s municipal administration as I became Vice-mayor and Health councillor from 1988 to 1993. I ree Rotary International Foundation’s “Paul Harris Fellow” title (2011), the “Nunzio Romeo” Award from the Order of Physicians of Messina (2011), the “Order of Merit of the Italian Republic” by President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano and Prime Minister pro tempore Matteo Renzi (2014), and the “Sérgio Vieira de Mello” Award in Krakow (2015). In 2015 I also had the chance to meet director Gianfranco Rosi, winner of the Leone D’Oro in Venice for the documentary “Sacro GRA”. He requested permission to film me while I was working, as he wwanted to use the footage for his docufiction film “Fire at Sea””. I happily agreed in the hope that through cinema, the world would receive a clear message: that those who are still indifferent to the hurt, suffering and death of so many people need to understand the necessity for concrete action. It is in search of a better future that people put their lives in danger and sometimes even lose that most precious thing, life itself.