My name is Alessandra, I am 42 years old, and I am currently the director of the Popoli Insieme ODV Association, which takes in and accompanies refugee and asylum seeker people in the city of Padua.

I met ASCS in 2013, and this knowledge blossomed rather quickly into a period of one year at the mission in La Paz, Bolivia; I was coming from other experiences in the same country and had already worked as a volunteer with migrants and refugees, so my foot on the plane rested with ease!

At that time in my life I was moved by a twofold desire, that of returning to my beloved Bolivia on the one hand, and on the other to further challenge myself with the world of migrants and refugees, having a way precisely to make a profession out of it… and that is precisely what then, in time, it was! For a year I managed the Migrant House in La Paz, working with the mission fathers, and coordinated a project to support children in school and train young leaders. Looking back many years later, two things I recognize were crucial.

The first, the fact of not being left alone: the type of assignment demanded a lot, the responsibilities, the less than hospitable environment, the extreme cold inside and outside the house, the altitude, the misunderstandings with the fathers… But the power of sharing – for better or worse – with people with whom deep relationships had been established, I am thinking of the ASCS colleague present in La Paz and the local project colleagues, made all the difference. Mainly because of the opportunity to reframe and therefore cope better with the many things that had to be handled on a daily basis.

The second: the opportunity to grasp live, in every moment of the day, the richness that is in diversity, Scalabrinianally speaking. Indeed, I think with great affection of every single person who has passed through my House: the handyman from Ecuador, el mata ratones Colombian with family, Argentines numerous, los malavaristas brought by the migración, Arthur and the Falklands Malvinas War (“Hermanaaaa“), the Indians, the Nepalese (but how the heck had they ended up there??), the Potos with the children, Stephen-I remember everyone, even those we didn’t really get into it with, even those I was crazy about, in fact: maybe especially them. Each one left me something, each one helped me build a part of me that otherwise would not have been the same.

Once I returned to Italy, my dream became a full-fledged reality: working with refugee people became my profession! But fortunately – first of all – it remains my passion, because deep down a part of me is still there, staring at those words… Yo era migrante y ustedes me acogieron.