Village of the lost children

Elena di Fiore lost her 10-year-old daughter, Giovana

By Jane O'Brien San Giuliano, Italy

Mud and rubble are all that remain of the school that was once the heart of San Giuliano.

Twenty-seven children were killed when the building collapsed after an earthquake on Hallowe'en.

Step by step we can try to reorganise the village and rebuild confidence in the future

Guido Bertolaso
Head of relief work

It destroyed the tiny southern Italian community and left the villagers homeless.

Nobody escaped untouched by the tragedy.

Elena di Fiore lost her 10-year-old daughter, Giovana, who was inside the school.

"They took her out at four in the morning because they knew she was dead. They decided to save the other children first," said Mrs di Fiore.

Not much remains of the tiny southern Italian village

"I sat there patiently waiting for my daughter to come out and all the time the earth continued to tremble."

Like the other villagers, she is desperate to salvage what she can from the wreckage of her home, but continuing tremors make it too dangerous.

The buildings are cracked and crumbling and only emergency workers are allowed onto the streets.

For the time being, she is staying at an out-of-season resort several miles away.

But some of the older people have refused to move from the area because they think they will be forgotten about if they do.

	:	Italy quake
Pictures from the scene of the school tragedy

They are living in tents and caravans overlooking the village and have been promised temporary wooden chalets.

Some of the older residents do not want to leave

They are angry that these have not yet arrived.

Guido Bertolaso is head of Civic Protection and in charge of the relief work at San Giuliano.

He says the government cannot give any timescale for providing permanent new homes and many of the residents fear it will never happen.

"The only answer that we can give them is a guarantee that we can work together," he said. "Step by step we can try to reorganise the village and rebuild confidence in the future."

'Unsafe'

Mrs di Fiore spends most of her time with the Victims' Committee, who are monitoring the criminal investigation and campaigning for safer schools across Italy.

A report by the country's largest union revealed that 42,000 schools could not be certified safe because no record could be found of proper checks.

Committee President Adriano Ritucci said it was a scandal that needed to be exposed: "We owe it to our dead children, the angels of San Giuliano, and God will give us the strength," he said.

"We also owe it to the children who survived so that they can be confident that all schools are safe."

Meanwhile, six people involved in the construction of the school at San Giuliano have been arrested.

A new school on the outskirts of the village has already opened. It took just seven days to build and was privately funded.

It will be the centre of the new village, although nobody know when work will start or how it will be paid for.