2020, there was also some good: six stories with a happy ending

2020 was a year to forget. But did something good happen (also)? The answer is yes. While happy ending stories are just a drop in the sea of ​​pain that overwhelmed us in 2020 and that we have had to live with, we have identified some stories and news that make the year that is about to end a little less horrible. Seeds of hope.

Here are which ones:

ANTHONY MMESOMA MADU

The one of Anthony Mmesoma Honey it is certainly one of the stories that made us dream the most in 2020.

It all happened in a flash, as often happens when the medium of storytelling is social networks. For Anthony Mmesoma Madu, 11, from Nigerian, being filmed by a passer-by while dancing with elegance and determination, barefoot, in the rain meant having a chance. In a very short time his classical ballet in the rain and in the mud it went viral and many celebrities from the world of entertainment offered to guarantee him a course of study. Thus, from the free Leap of Dance Academy in Lagos, Anthony will have the possibility, next year, to move to the United States to continue training at the American Ballet Theater. A story with which Anthony has not only told how a dream can be realized but with which he has also fought one of the most widespread prejudices, namely that dance is a discipline suitable only for females.

KAMALA HARRIS

By the time she took the stage in her white business suit to deliver her first speech as US vice president, Kamala Harris had already won everyone over. And its history is one that we will not forget. She is the first female vice president, the first black and the first Asian American vice president in the history of the United States of America. Born in California from Jamaican father and Indian mother, before Kamala Harris no woman had succeeded in the enterprise: it is only four years ago the defeat of Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump. “Joe had the audacity to break through one of the biggest barriers in our country but if I am the first woman in this position I will not be the last. I hope that every child who hears these words understands that this is a country that offers possibilities». Go Kamala, go!

SUDAN HAS PROHIBITED FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATIONS

Three years in prison. With this penalty, Sudan, at the beginning of May 2020, declared female genital mutilation a crime punishable by law. A fundamental victory for women’s rights in a country, where 87 percent of girls and women between 15 and 49 have undergone genital mutilation (UNICEF data). Girls who are still intact are considered impure and often marginalized. After years of interventions by organizations for the defense of human rights, the transitional government that took office last year announced the approval of the law, inserted in article 14 of the new Constitutional Declaration on rights and freedoms.

THE VACCINE AGAINST COVID

The best news of 2020 is this: we have a vaccine against Covid, certainly the fastest ever obtained in history. Vaccine Day took place throughout Europe on December 27, the day that kicked off the vaccination campaign that will continue around the world for many of the next few months. December 27 marked for the European Union, and in the specific case for Italy, the day on which the first 9750 doses of the anti-Covid vaccine developed by Pfizer / BioNTech were administered. A historic day that marks the real moment of the restart. Vanity Fair launched the #iomivaccino campaign to support the importance of doing so. “The opportunity to get vaccinated is the key to getting out of the shadow of the pandemic and finally returning to dreaming and living a better tomorrow for everyone”, explained director Simone Marchetti. «Without doubts and without fake news we say: I put my face on it. I VACCINE MYSELF #iomivaccino ».

FREE ABSORBENTS IN SCOTLAND

Scotland will be the first country to guarantee free sanitary pads. Last November, parliament issued the Period (Free Provision) Product Bill, the first legal provision in the world that provides for free access to sanitary pads “to anyone who needs them”. Proposed by the parliamentarian Monica Lennon to combat the so-called period poverty, according to which it has been calculated that many women cannot afford sanitary pads due to the high cost. “This campaign was supported by a broad coalition of trade unions, women’s organizations and charities,” Lennon commented. “It is a signal to the world that free universal access to menstruation products can be guaranteed».

THE RETURN OF THE ANIMALS

With the lockdown and the total stop of tourism, animals, even those that were risking extinction, have returned to take their places. And so, despite pollution and global warming, in the summer of 2020, Legambiente has calculated a record increase in Loggerhead turtle nesting over the past few years, 55 blue whales have been spotted in the seas of Antarctica, Colorado gray wolves are back, and so many animals risked disappearing around the world .