Here is a brief account of the recently completed mission in July 2016 in the refugee camps which our volunteers have just visited. We report the food distribution, the distribution of stationery and the ‘twinning’ with some children in a Calabrian school who sent drawings and messages to their less fortunate peers.
Food Distribution
150 parcels were distributed in the three camps: inside each parcel there were flour, sugar, oil, pulses, biscuits, pasta, rice. And so much desire to communicate interest and make it clear that they are not so abandoned and forgotten by everyone. This is what we brought to the mission in Turkey, which has just ended at the beginning of July 2016. Midst the scorching heat and the mosquitoes that infest the air, in the middle of this compact cloud of children, the dust and those always dirty legs … And looking at them in photos you instinctively think “I’ll come and take you away, away for a bath, away for a complete meal, away for an afternoon of games, away to let you do have a nap between fresh sheets scented with lavender” . 150 families that have food for some time, thanks to the commitment and generosity of many people here in Italy, thanks to the commitment of the volunteers who went down to witness the commitment not to forget and abandon these human beings to their fate, in a silent war that inexorably continues and continues and continues.
Stationery distribution
Words are a weapon. A powerful weapon; knowing how to read and write means emancipation, it means knowing and claiming one’s rights, and accepting one’s own duties towards others. It means to arm yourself with culture. Drawing allows you to express emotions; drawing allows you to express your needs, desires and convictions. The border between word and drawing is not so clear. These are two concepts that intertwine with each other. For these children and for these families, being able to learn to write, read and be able to show their feelings by talking about themselves through color is a form of resistance. They have lost their homes, work, family, security, health, sometimes arms and legs. We are not going to let them loose even their culture, the only means of being emancipated and winning over evil and war. And these photos show that with little you can help to do a lot, really a lot for them in this sense. Thanks also to the help of the Mahmud Committee which made this project possible.
Delivery and exchange of drawing
There are no languages, colors of skin, religions or borders that can stop the desire for peace and sharing. Many thanks to Finuccia Congi, president of the cultural association Mille Eventi, who organized a wonderful evening to finance the activities of the committee, and who collected these drawings that were brought to Turkey by our volunteers. And many thanks alst to these Italian children, and their families, and the school district of the town of Mendicino (Cosenza), directed by Professor Assunta Morrone, who reinforce with love and delicacy the relationship that binds us to these Syrian children, not so far away geographically, deprived of everything but their innocence and the desire to keep hoping.
