Solidarity, meeting, learning as a sign of welcome
The first Christmas mission of the Youth for Peace with migrants from the Balkan route began on 27 December. A second one started on 2 January and is still in progress.
The Youth for Peace from Padua, Trieste, Treviso, Bologna and Parma are spending their Christmas holidays together with migrants - sometimes their peers - living in difficult conditions in different places in Trieste. They have organised activities and moments of encounter and integration.
Every day about 120 migrants, who live on the streets in Trieste, gather for the "Friendship Lunch" in the premises of San Martino al Campo. The Youth for Peace know many of them because they regularly visit them during the year.
Many of these migrants are camped at the "Silos", a large abandoned warehouse in the centre of the city, which has become a kind of "village". Migrants live in very difficult conditions, in the cold and in extreme hygienic conditions.
The Italian language school is an opportunity to regain hope of getting out of such a dramatic situation and begin a path of integration.
Celebrations and language lessons have been also organised for the 50 or so migrants accommodated in the Camposacro refugee camp, mainly from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
The agenda is still full of engagements: a trip to the picturesque town of Muggia, not far from the city. A prayer for peace will take place in the church of Sant'Antonio Vecchio, where the Community meets for evening prayer, with the presence of the Bishop of Trieste, Msgr. Enrico Trevisi, on 4 January.
