On Saturday and Sunday,
actress Sharon Stone will be touring the southern Italian region
of Basilicata to pay homage to the Città della Pace (City of
Peace), a refugee centre that bears the name of a foundation
conceived by Nobel Peace Laureate Betty Williams.
Williams won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976 for her efforts
to promote peace in Northern Ireland.
Stone will visit Matera on Saturday for a charity
fundraising dinner. On Sunday, she will visit the refugee centre
in Scanzano Jonico and Sant'Arcangelo.
Over the last three years, the Città della Pace per i
Bambini di Basilicata (City of Peace for the Children of
Basilicata) has hosted more than 80 people, and currently lodges
30. It has sheltered families who fled from Nigeria, Gambia,
Afghanistan and other nations.
The Città della Pace was built where, in 2003 in Scanzano
Jonico, the government had instead intended to create a site for
storing nuclear waste. Public protests blocked the project. The
Città della Pace refugee centre took root in its place.
Stone's presence at the Città della Pace is intended as
"strong testimony in favor of refugees that cross the Sicilian
Channel, risking their lives to flee persecution by
fundamentalists and conflicts" causing bloodshed in the Middle
East and southern shores of the Mediterranean.
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