Hola! I am Laura, I am 28 years old and a soul on the road. In 2018, my steps joined those of ASCS, when together with my friend Giudi I participated for the first time in the Io Ci Sto camp in Borgo Mezzanone. That was the beginning of everything, of a journey that still lasts and that has made me grow and meet many beautiful people, with some of whom friendships for life were born. I left with a simple desire to learn about and experiment in a type of service I was unfamiliar with, to spend myself for each other, and to delve into current issues that were shaking and questioning me. So after that first Io Ci Sto Camp as a volunteer, came a second one where I collaborated with the staff, and in the years to come I became more and more part of the group of young activists who every year organize and carry out not only the volunteer camps at the various borders of Italy, but also many other initiatives, such as awareness-raising events, interventions in schools, intercultural and intergenerational workshops. Every moment lived together with ASCS has been and is an opportunity for growth, becausethrough the encounter with the Other I discover every time new little pieces of me, thanks to sharing with sensitive souls and service I go towards a slightly better version of me. Over these years many episodes have marked my person, episodes that I mostly associate with special encounters. One episode in particular often resonates with me and does not leave me quiet, it moves me. Epiphany Bridge, the middle of winter, I was at the Massi refuge in Oulx, a small village in Piedmont on the border with France, during a “Confine” (weekend service camp). Dozens of people trying to reach France on foot are received daily at this refuge, and that day, among the refuge’s guests was a Syrian family, including a 6/7-year-old girl. Giudi and I started playing with her in the garden, it was cold but it didn’t matter, there was a desire for lightness and laughter. We didn’t understand each other, we didn’t have a “bridge language” to communicate with her, but fortunately with children it is so easy, when you play every barrier collapses and you all become characters in one story. The game looked like a simple hide-and-seek, we were running and hiding all three of us. All three of us? Wait a minute but, then who are we running from? We hide behind a small wall and the little one signals us to be quiet, her little finger over her mouth, at which point she whispers, “police! police!” And suddenly we understood the game. Hide and seek. Run away and don’t let the police see you. Giudi and I immediately thought of “Life is Beautiful,” Benigni’s film, of that father who, in order to protect his son from the brutality of the concentration camp, came up with a role-playing game, and played it to the hilt. We imagined a similar situation, a mother and father facing a very dangerous journey with a little girl to protect, and they do it by inventing a game. But maybe it’s not even the parents, maybe it’s her who with her childlike imagination has sewn a story around herself, like a suit of armor. This encounter is one that hurt me the most, because when it comes to children, when it is childhood that is being violated, I feel touched personally. And while every human being should have the right to a Home, to move to a safe place, when it comes to children, to little people, these rights are compounded by other fundamental rights that, on such a journey, are too often trampled upon. This episode still shakes me up and always reminds me how important it is for me to be a relief to someone who is going through something bad, when I can. To be a friendly person, a person who makes one feel safe. As I always feel at home with ASCS, I try to be a little bit Home for the people I meet.

I wish ASCS to continue to be Home, a safe haven, an open and welcoming place where life stories, dreams and hopes can always grow and intertwine.