Solidarietà in pillole. Farmaci, pratiche sociali e volontari ucraini in azione a Napoli

The article is devoted to the practices of solidarity promoted by the Ukrainian community in Naples in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on 24 February 2022. Through ethnographic research conducted in several phases between 2022 and 2025, it was possible to observe how charitable initiatives gradually broadened their scope, extending also to the collection of medicines. It emerged that medicines, beyond their purely curative function, also took on social and cultural significance in the contexts in which they circulated. In the Neapolitan setting, it was observed that the processes involved in sourcing and transporting medicines gave rise to further initiatives of solidarity and to new forms of collective aggregation. The “curative” action of these products also extended to the volunteers themselves: the commitment to finding rare medicines, overcoming bureaucratic obstacles to ship them to Ukraine, and receiving confirmation of their delivery represented a “powerful antidote” to the collective sense of frustration and helplessness that had afflicted the Ukrainian community in the early days of the war.