A Summer Through: young people on the road between borders and encounters

There is a summer that is not just about the sea, travel or relaxation. It is the summer of camps Through and volunteer experiences offered by ASCS, where many young people have chosen to get involved alongside those who experience firsthand the challenges of migration.

With backpacks on their backs and open hearts, they shared days of service, listening and confrontation in contexts where borders are not just lines on the map, but places that mark lives and destinies.

Castel Volturno: hope on the shoreline.

From Aug. 4 to 10, participants in the Through Castel Volturno camp experienced a week full of meetings, service and listening, accompanied by Comboni Fathers and other local associations that have been working for years in this difficult and complex area.

Castel Volturno, on the Caserta coast, is a place of contrasts: beautiful beaches and crumbling concrete, multicultural communities and social isolation, environmental degradation and a desire for redemption. Different nationalities coexist here, particularly second generations of migrant children, who reinvent their identities every day and build a possible future. But organized crime, human trafficking and lack of institutions are also intertwined here-a difficult terrain that requires courage to inhabit.

During the week, the participants learned about this reality and then shared their service in the Combonian mission: cleaning common spaces, fixing a soccer field to give it back to children and youth, and creating places that can become signs of welcome and hope.

Trieste: the gateway to Europe

The Through Trieste camp took place from August 10 to 16: here the participants of had an intense experience in this city symbolic of migration along the Balkan route. Every day, in fact, many people arrive in Trieste after weeks of walking through Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, bringing with them stories of fleeing Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other countries.

In collaboration with Caritas, Linea d’Ombra, ICS and other area realities, they touched on the hardness and hope that are intertwined at a border that, rather than dividing, tells stories. During the week, participants joined these realities in daily activities: serving meals at the Caritas refectory, supporting the SAC in Campo Sacro, evening food distribution in Freedom Square.

There were also numerous meetings with activists and witnesses, which helped to understand the social and political challenges related to the border and human mobility.

Oulx: the border that climbs.

From Aug. 24-30, camp participants through Oulx experienced a week of service, listening and walking in the heart of the upper Susa Valley. Oulx, a small alpine town, has in recent years become a key point on the “alpine route”: from here, every day, men, women, minors and families from Africa and the Near East set out for France, facing cold, fatigue and uncertainty.

 

In collaboration with the Massi Fraternity Shelter, participants helped welcome those who arrive, prepare clean rooms, a hot meal and the necessities to resume the journey. They met with witnesses and trainers to understand the dynamics of human mobility along this frontier and the delicate balance that sustains the local reception system, without forgetting those who did not make it and transforming pain into a commitment that becomes living memory.

Capitanata: dignity among the fields

At the Through Capitanata camp, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 6, participants experienced an immersion in the agricultural reality of the province of Foggia, a land of wheat, tomatoes and hard work.

Here, thousands of seasonal laborers, mostly migrants, work in the fields, often in exploitative and precarious conditions, and live in informal settlements without water or essential services. With the support of Caritas Cerignola and Altromercato, the young people spent a week between service, listening and reflection, discovering that justice and dignity can be cultivated even in agricultural fields.

Rome: the Youth Jubilee

This summer, Attraverso25’s path also came to Rome, on the occasion of the Youth Jubilee.

At Casa Scalabrini 634 we have created spaces for dialogue and listening on migration: workshops, testimonies, moments of service. The children walked around the city discovering that humanity on the move is not an abstract idea, but a concrete encounter.

Cosenza: the Remix project

From Sept. 4-7, in Calabria, Italy, with the Remix project, young people experienced days of coexistence and active citizenship together with local and migrant peers. Through art, play and confrontation, they experienced the beauty of a cross-cultural workshop where differences do not divide but enrich.

The initiative, promoted by ASCS together with Migrantes, Caritas and Sisters Help of Christians, involved young people from different regions of Italy and from different countries of the world in an experience of profound encounter, which became an opportunity to start afresh from themselves, deepening their own identity in relation to others and discovering that personal responsibility is the first stone for building a better world.

Summer doesn’t end here: new opportunities await us

Each camp, each testimony, each encounter reminded us that borders are not walls, but places to be transformed into bridges. And ASCS summer does not end with September.

Awaiting us Through Malta, Oct. 23-26, is a new experience to discover human mobility in the Mediterranean from another point of view. In three days of learning and listening, participants will immerse themselves in the reality of this island, a crossroads of peoples and cultures. In collaboration with Christian Life Community (CLC Malta) and other local entities, they will meet migrants, refugees, NGOs and religious bodies to understand how migration is perceived and managed in a country that, like Italy, is exposed on the central Mediterranean route.

Summer is drawing to a close, but welcoming is a daily choice, capable of changing the outlook and the lives of those who live it. New proposals await us, such as ConFine weekends and Crossover meetings. The future needs young people who choose to cross barriers and build bridges.