Koshukuro

We are Mariacristina and Renato, an engaged couple currently living in the Marche region. We are 33 and 35 years old, respectively, and have long been dedicated through our work to social causes. We have worked mainly in the area of migration, serving in reception centers for asylum seekers and collaborating with various entities that take in the many displaced persons and refugees that wars produce every day.

Our experience of working with ASCS began in 2019 when Lucia proposed that we do a stint as workers in the mission in Nampula, in northern Mozambique, where, dearest Giovanna, after many years, would pass the baton on to us. Without any hesitation and without a return ticket, we jumped at the chance to participate in such an interesting project. We left in April that year and returned in July 2021, with an interim return forced because of Covid.

Our task was to run a nutrition center in the Maratane refugee camp, located a few kilometers from the city of Nampula and funded by the United Nations. The center welcomed the most vulnerable, as usual women and children, who arrived at the mission in need of psychological and nutritional support. Some of them would leave on foot from their homes even four hours before the center opened: almost no one there has a means of getting there.

It is very difficult to put the lived experiences into words, especially to describe the perceptions and feelings that are, most of the time, confused and opposing; joy and sadness, happiness and bitterness, optimism and discouragement, determination and weakness.

In particular, one of these moments, we experienced it when, in Italy, Covid was starting to spread. At that time, there where we were, there was no risk yet, but the international situation was so tense that we started thinking about going back. No one knew what was going on or even how the whole thing was going to develop; the companies were grounding all the planes and, from day to day, the connections to Italy were being reduced. We didn’t know what to do; it was one of those moments when the conflict of emotions we talked about earlier began to take over. The center needed us to stay open but at the same time we were afraid that if the virus came, it would be impossible to deal with it; with the children and their mothers already malnourished perhaps it would make the situation even worse. Perhaps. everything was in doubt, there were no certainties, yet we had to decide. In the end, we packed our bags in a few hours and, the next day, with the last airline still maintaining a connection to Italy, we left without knowing whether, at the Addis Ababa stopover, we would find a plane back to Italy. Although there have been many difficult moments during our stay, we feel that this episode represents the most critical one. Even today we are still unable to say whether, in that context, our choice was positive or not.

In any case, we never felt abandoned by ASCS staff, who were able to support us even in the complexity of the situation that had created the pandemic. We are immensely grateful that we had the opportunity to walk a little piece of the road together with them; we grew in so many ways, met so many people and learned new languages.

Happy birthday ASCS! We wish you a long life, full of people who will want to join and contribute to the important message of sharing that you have been spreading for 20 years. We will always support you.

Love, Mariacristina and Renato.

Scopri la Campagna Scintille di Sogni e accendi una luce di futuro, accoglienza e speranza per tutte le persone in movimento.

2024-03-25T15:32:00+01:00
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