I am Lucia, and I was born in Cittadella, a small town in the upper Padovan area, where I grew up, went to school, and where upon completion of my studies I started working in banking. In 2006, while looking for some organization that delved into the topic of interculture, I met the Scalabrini Fathers of Bassano del Grappa (VI) and decided to participate in the Training course for volunteers to international cooperation that ASCS was organizing there.

At the end of the training course I decided to leave for a month-long volunteer experience and was sent to Bogota, Colombia where I worked within the local Scalabrinian mission. In 2007, I decided to repeat the volunteer experience during my summer vacation month, and once I returned, I realized that one month of volunteering was no longer enough and that I wanted to give my life a deeper opportunity and experience.

So in January 2008 I quit my job at the bank and left for a one-year volunteer experience, again in Bogota, Colombia. The experience then turned into a five-year stint as coordinator of the local Migrant Home and as an integral part of the staff that ran “The Owl’s Nest,” a playroom-library and cultural center located in the Lisboa de Suba neighborhood where the Scalabrinian Fathers have their mission.

When I left I did so by listening to a voice inside me saying. That I could and should give my life a different connotation. That I could put myself out there by trying to put myself at the service of others and that this experience could give my life a different meaning.

And in fact this experience changed my life completely as in 2012, once back in Italy, I was offered a job in the Milan office of ASCS where to this day I coordinate the office and follow the administration and the international volunteering sector of the association.

Going from Cittadella to Bogota and then from Bogota to Milan was a very profound change for me. I went from a beautiful small town in the Veneto region of 18,000 people where there were very few migrant people in those days to a metropolis of more than 8,000,000 people where I was the migrant, the one who was different, the one who spoke a different language and struggled to understand the culture in which she was immersed. And then from Bogota I landed in Milan, the most European of Italian cities, a mix of cultures, people, people. A city where everyone is welcome but where it is easy to feel lonely, without references, without direction. Here continued my journey as a citizen of the world, in which I found myself working in the ASCS office in Brera, in the heart of “Milano bene.”

The Carmine Church, where ASCS is headquartered in Milan, has its front door always open, precisely to give a concrete sign of its openness to all the people who land here. Here in Milan every day we plan, dream, organize by involving in our projects, in our ideas the migrant people who are active subjects of the projects, whom we ask to collaborate with ideas and helping us in carrying out the activities. Working in ASCS allows me every day to touch the humanity of people, the richness of the various cultures I come into contact with, the depth and beauty of living with others in trying to build together an open and welcoming society in which each person can feel involved and welcome.

When, now 18 years ago, I first left I had no particular dreams, I simply wanted to experience, to learn, to put myself at the service of others. Over time I learned that rather than putting myself at the service of others it was others who put themselves at my service, telling me, teaching me, helping me to understand the complexity but also the beauty of a culture different from my own.

The five years on Colombian soil have taught me to see life differently, to live more lightly and to focus much more on the present trying to savor to the fullest the opportunities that life offers me. Returning to Italian soil was a great challenge for me, probably even more complicated than leaving. I re-entered what is my culture, my roots, with a completely different worldview though. That is why it was not easy to come back, to have to resume rhythms that by now did not belong to me, to come up against a reality with very different problems than the ones I had seen people I had met during my five Colombian years face but which created in people very strong anxieties and thoughts. Not feeling fully understood and comprehended by almost any of the people I met in my everyday Milanese life was frustrating, but at the same time I was aware that this was normal because I had changed and readjusting my life to Italian rhythms was something that would take time and patience.

In fact, twelve years after my return to Italy, I think I have never readjusted my life to the Italian rhythm. I simply found my own rhythm, my own way of dealing with time, problems and daily labors by trying not to forget what my five Colombian years taught me and trying to apply it in my daily life.

I have to say that working in ASCS has greatly helped this straddling of two worlds in that in my work every day I operate alongside many friends, colleagues and collaborators of different nationalities with whom the confrontation is continuous and is made up of teachings, sharing and reflections.

My journey began when the association was not yet two years old, and I find myself today celebrating its first 20 years. These 18 years together have been a continuous growth and discovery for me. I have faced the many changes that have occurred within the association sometimes with fear but always with great confidence.

I had the good fortune to share the desk for almost two years with Fr. Beniamino, the founder of ASCS, and more than a decade after his death his light, wisdom and gentleness accompany my daily work. He looks at me from a photograph we have in the office, and I often smile at him during my days and ask him to guide me and all the friends who work with the association.

I wish ASCS to continue to remain an open, young and fresh association, ready to welcome all people who are willing to get involved and help in the building of an interethnic society in which everyone can feel welcomed and loved, as we first operators were.

Happy birthday ASCS!