I imagine the faces of my ASCS friends and girlfriends as soon as they read the title. I know, you are right. I often abuse these words, but I can’t help it-they have become my mantra!

I am Silvia, I am 26 years old, and since I met ASCS in 2021 I have made a little bit my own the motto that characterized Sophie Scholl in the days of the White Rose: one must have a soft heart and a hard spirit(ein weiches Herz und ein harter Geist).

What can I tell you about myself? I was born and raised in Trento, Italy, in a small town surrounded by greenery, and I currently live in Turin, Italy, where I majored in International Studies. I am concluding my year of community service in a shelter for refugee women and children, a very intense experience that has allowed me to learn more about the magical world of sheltering, which is as fragile as it is complex.

I take a dip into the past to go back to that August 26, 2021, when with my faithful traveling companion Silvia L. we crossed northern Italy in her 500 to join the group of participants registered for the camp Through Ventimiglia 2021, on the western border between Italy and France. That was my first experience in a border town that I lived with “open” eyes, ears and heart. Simone, Giuditta, Irene and Father Jonas were the camp coordinators, the first smiling faces I associated with ASCS. To the first question we had asked during the getting-to-know-you activity, “What am I doing at this camp?”, I had replied that my desire was to observe the border in person and name the hundreds of moving people relegated to numbers in the college textbooks I was studying. I did not yet know that the reality of Ventimiglia would “scratch” me so much. “In Ventimiglia I perceived so much suffering generated by inhumanity, indifference and silence. Sad looks, of a sadness so deep that I will never forget. What I wanted to carve in my heart, however, are the sparks of humanity that devote themselves daily to respecting human rights and protecting the dignity of those who would otherwise be easy victims of a cruel and inhuman system. Indeed, in the border city, the institutional vacuum is filled by the daily efforts of volunteers and associations who resist border repression, the violence of securitarian logic and illegitimate rejections.”. Thoughts I wrote in a journal upon returning from camp.

I returned to Ventimiglia in the spring of 2022 and then the following summer alongside Simone, Irene, Laura and Father René. Returning there a year later meant feeling even more anger at seeing other people in transit forced to live in the same precarious and inhumane conditions as the year before, forced to sleep under the highway bridge. It also meant getting excited about receiving a smile from caregivers and volunteers who were expecting us to return.

Over the course of these years, I also became acquainted with the reality of Trieste on the eastern border with Slovenia, the terminus of the Balkan route and the gateway to Italy. I began to see a red thread connecting all these experiences at the borders. Thanks to Father Jonas, I then got to know the ReVolti ai Balcani network, of which ASCS is a member, which was a springboard for me that launched me to Bosnia and Herzegovina where I did research work for my master’s thesis, inside the so-called “temporary reception centers” for migrant people along the Balkan routes. The wonderful people who make up this network gave me the opportunity to disseminate some of my research work, contributing to the writing of the book “Locked in” with a chapter on the confinement camps in Bosnia.

ASCS has been and still remains a second home, a welcoming, always inspiring refuge. Together with many of the people with whom I shared experiences at the borders, I continue to collaborate within the youth outreach sector, organizing outreach events in schools through the Pick Your Size and in the communities of Trent and Turin with the meetings of Crossover (*Migration explained well, with aperitif). With a small group of volunteers, we have tried to strengthen communication on social profiles, bringing to life the columns of “Apponti” (suggestions of readings and films in the field of migration), of “Did You Know?” and of “World News.” with the aim of offering bits of knowledge and food for thought to the boys and girls who follow the pages. More recently, with the wonderful group in Chieri (a city in the province of Turin where a third ASCS branch was established) we designed “Turn,” an active citizenship course in partnership with ASCS.

In short, over the past few years we have put down roots on different projects and have seen so many new shoots grow. I wish us, resilient existences, to continue on the road to a Europe with more bridges and fewer walls!

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