My name is Alice, I am 24 years old and I come from Marostica, a small town in the province of Vicenza. I am currently pursuing a master’s degree in International Relations in Geneva, Switzerland. Right after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in Human Rights from the University of Padua, I decided to put into practice what I had studied for, working in two very different migrant shelters: the first one in São Paulo, Brazil alongside the Scalabrinians, the second one in Athens, Greece for an Italian NGO. These experiences have deeply marked my personal and professional path, helping me to understand that my life goal is to offer support and help to people in need, especially the most vulnerable and oppressed. Engaging for and with them fills my heart and gives me a constant drive to act and improve, giving me a gratification that goes beyond anything.

This summer I spent a month and a half in Calais, France, where I volunteered at Maison Effatà, a shelter for people in transit with the ASCS organization. It was an extremely intense and challenging experience that taught me a lot and gave me great satisfaction.

The day before I left to return to Italy, I felt the need to put down on paper the thoughts and emotions that were still jumbling inside me, trying to make some order with respect to what I had experienced. I would like to share the text with you:

“There are places that belong to everyone and where space is easily filled so naturally that inevitably the law of the fittest prevails. In a context where resources are few and needs many, what is mine cannot be yours, and the border becomes a place of extreme violence and suffering. In Calais, France, there are tents and blankets laid by the side of the road, amid the dust kicked up by speeding cars; or entire informal encampments inside abandoned warehouses or in the middle of wild clearings. When working in these places, one tries to understand as much as possible the suffering of young travelers hoping to find something. We sit there, next to each other, and even simple hugs or glances become untranslatable. A few handshakes reach the deepest points of the heart, glossing over the incommunicability of unfamiliar languages and the different weight of passports between them.

Being an intern in the “Maison Effatà” shelter in Calais, means precisely creating sacred spaces of sharing with those who have lived for a long time in the aforementioned ‘jungles.’ Where there is no such thing as a European citizen or refugee, but only people who cross each other’s path for a while, and walk a piece of the road together, whether it is for a ride to the hospital, a dinner, a trip to the beach, or an English lesson. The days become heavier and heavier to walk for those who have seen and continue to see their lives locked up inside a container or in tents, and have seen their rights silenced. It is therefore crucial to be present, to offer a space for these very people to speak and be welcomed. There are so many stories to hear, laughter that buries past and present horror, so many traditions to learn, and eyes to cross, that it is impossible not to wonder why you want to make invisible this moving part of humanity.”

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