Hello! I am Silvia I am 28 years old and from Bergamo. I met ASCS in November 2021 through the volunteer course, from there after experiencing the camps of “ConFine”, my desire to leave for a volunteer experience outside of Italy took shape and in July 2022 I left for Tijuana, Mexico.

I lived for 6 months in the “Migrant House” in Tijuana, a border city with San Diego (USA), which from month to month hosts people in search of the “American dream.” I left with the desire to get out of what I knew, open myself to an unknown piece of the world, trying to bring what I am. In Tijuana I found people moved by that stubborn desire to build something good for themselves and their children, a path where pain and joy are bound in a tangle that only time will unravel. So many volunteers who have been able to accompany me, giving birth in me to new sensitivities, new attentions and showing me different ways of caring for others. Tijuana with its chaotic streets and the wall that pushes into the sea taught me not to stop at the surface, but to dig deeper because behind every ugliness there is always a glimmer of beauty, work that requires perseverance and a little indignation in front of what is unjust and awareness of one’s own privileges. The Casa has taught me to create a safe space where, at least for a while, we can slip off our shoes and put down our bags, before thinking about the next step to take. Home where one can give space to one’s belonging, where one can prepare dinners with Mexican, Guatemalan, Italian and Venezuelan food. The House where a 16-year-old boy who has grown up too fast can enjoy a Christmas story by putting himself in the front row with younger children, laughing his head off. Home where you can celebrate your birthday, not where you would like, but rejoicing in the fact that you are surrounded by your family who are safe.

I wish ASCS to always preserve and nurture the attentive, nonjudgmental and welcoming style that it shows and delivers to its volunteers, collaborators and activists and that it carefully brings to every proposal it makes. So that the desire to truly meet the other, whoever he or she may be, may be that bridge that opens new paths to improve step by step the world that has been handed over to us.