Create, discover, meet. They are perhaps the verbs that characterize me most and tell something about me, although it is difficult to be able to condense them into a few lines.

What else. My name is Elena, I am 31 years old, I work in the museum field as an educator and project manager, and I live in a small town on the outskirts of Milan.

But back to the verbs. I love art and I enjoy precisely making art prints, creating. Another passion of mine is definitely discovering new things, tasting foods, trying experiences, learning about new places. And definitely meet. Meeting people from different cultures, each with their own history, background, and personality.

I approached ASCS with precisely this desire, to be able to meet the realities of so many people who for one reason or another migrate, leaving their home countries to follow their dreams, sometimes dreams of a better future.

I started in 2018 with the volunteer course with the idea of having a migrant service and encounter experience but without really having a particular destination or experience in mind. I remember that I really enjoyed the volunteer preparation course; I met so many people who, like me, were ready to get involved. And then in the summer I left for the “Io Ci Sto” encounter-work camp in Borgo Mezzanone (FG).

It was a very intense experience for me, of bonds and friendships created with the volunteers and migrant people we met, but also of knowledge and indignation with respect to the realities that many of them are forced to endure, as well as the great work that ASCS and the Scalabrinian missionaries do every day in places like that and in so many other cities.

I remember when we used to arrive at the Runway, for Italian school with the boys who came mainly from the camps nearby, exploited and tired from the work shifts. Quite often the first thing I perceived seeing them enter, in their smiles, was the desire to be there to learn Italian, much more than a language, almost a key to life in Italy. You could also sense their gratitude for our being there with them beyond teaching. I think friendship at the end of the day is what really matters. Being present in each other’s lives, being there for him or her, helping each other, supporting each other. Although it was a short experience, it was really nice to get to know these new friends, some of whom I still hear from and who are slowly achieving what they dreamed for their future.

After that experience, I decided that I wanted to remain in ASCS as a volunteer and started working on The World at Home, a project that I love and still participate in. I have to say that every year it is really nice to get to know so many different people and so many different cultures, to try to create moments with them where they can tell us about the aspects of their culture that maybe even we don’t know about but that allows us to travel virtually and for them to also return a little bit with their hearts to the roots of their identity and culture. The most beautiful thing, however, is that this allows everyone to get to know each other and overcome a little bit those barriers that we carry in our hearts, maybe of fear, distrust of others, that we basically create for ourselves because we have never really met each other, we don’t know each other. That dream of therefore creating bridges, bonds, I see that every year here is fulfilled and year after year we add new friends, new communities telling their stories and meeting each other. Of them I carry in my heart the smiles and generosity of the people who helped us, who made themselves available during the evening. For me, one of the best moments is always when during the evenings we create moments of sharing all together, such as last year with the wild Greek dances, which got everyone on the dance floor! These are occasions and encounters that I believe color our lives and help us live together.

I wish ASCS on the occasion of these 20 years, to blow out many more candles, with more and more friends gathered together, so that new projects, new collaborations and new ways to build more bridges and break down more and more walls can be born!