Ciao! It's Louise. Today I would like to speak about the connection that exists between ESC and "Servizo civile" (SCU) volunteers. As an ESC volunteer, my experience is different from the SCU volunteers in several ways. For one, I am an international volunteer coming to Italy for six months, whereas the SCU volunteers are Italians staying in Caritas for one whole year. Second, the SCU volunteers work in just one service for a three-month period (Centro d'ascolto, cucina, emporio or reception). I, on the other hand, move between different areas of Caritas each day, giving me a wider variety of tasks and responsibilities. This also means it took me longer than them to adapt and become efficient, but after just a few weeks or months, I became more independent in every service, whereas they have to adapt to a new service every three months. I met the SCU volunteers of Caritas during my second week when they returned from their training. I had the chance to work alongside ...
Hello everyone! It's Louise. Today, I'd like to share with you two actions in which I recently participated. They taught me a lot, both on a human level and in terms of the concrete challenges involved in welcoming and supporting migrants in Italy. Welcoming migrants on their arrival at the port Two weeks ago, I went with Marco D’Aurizio (President of Caritas Jesina) and other workers of Caritas Ancona to welcome a group of 276 migrants who had arrived on the Ocean's Viking (a boat that rescues migrants at sea) at Ancona’s port. We were there at 8am, under grey skies and a cold wind, ready to hand out breakfast: a bottle of water, an apple, a filled brioche, and tea for those who wanted it. The reception was very closely supervised by the police, which made the organisation very rigorous, but also a little tense. At first, we let people sit down, take time to eat and warm up. But soon, the police were pressing us to get the migrants onto the buses waiting nearby. So, we h...