ASSOCIATION: WHO WE ARE

We are young but with sound foundations!

“Children in the world” is a project, which was originated by the experiences that the associated members have matured in the various voluntary service circles.
Helping children has always been our aim, whether they are Rom (also called gipsies) who are put on the street, or children with family problems, children with mental disorder or simply people who need love.
Before the setting up of “Children in the world”, we have given our support to some international projects: in Kenya, near the mission of the Camillian Fathers in Karungu; in Kosovo to support the project of rebuilding “a hundred houses” by the North-East Caritas (a charitable institution). Fortified by this, like by other experiences, we have felt the necessity to voice our idea of love, so that it is, as much as possible, set free from the political trends, on one hand, and linked to the children in need of help, on the other hand.

PROMOTED INITIATIVES

- ARMENIA

- Fundraising, necessary for the medical aid, that the Armenian children in Yerevan daily need, because they constantly have to be subjected to dialysis in the Hospital of Arabkir.

The money has been gathered thanks to activities such as:

- Solidarity Markets

- An Armenian culture evening: territory, history, life and culture of Armenia presented by father Arturo Berzidikoan, from the religious community of the Armenian Fathers’ Isle in Venice.

- Correspondence between the children of the Primary School C. Colombo Chirignago Venice, and the Armenian children in Yerevan.

- AFRICA

-Fundraising in favour of the Kenyan mission of the Camillian Fathers in Karungu, necessary for the rebuilding of “St Camillus Children Welfare Home” for the children who are left alone, because their parents have died of A.I.D.S.
The money has been gathered thanks to activities such as:

-Solidarity Markets, in various occasions, supported by “Peace centre” and by the “Observatory of social policy”; local authorities of the Venice Town Council, which have mobilized the associations of the areas of Mestre Centre, Marghera, Lido, Chirignago-Gazzera.

-Preparation of a life-sized Christmas Crib in Chirignago Square – Venice- near the new newsstand.

KOSOVO

- Cooperation with MASCI project (Italian Catholic Scouts Adult Movement) for the realization of a drinking water well in Mirusha.

- Collection of shoes, carried out by the footwear factories from the Riviera del Brenta, and consequently delivered by the association, called “Lilliput”, to the Serbian community of Pacevo, which lives in solitary and absolute poverty in the inner part of Kosovo.

- Fundraising for the realization of a welfare home called “Children from Kosovo” in Klina where sixty war orphan girls, are still homeless.

VARIOUS ACTIVITIES.

-Organization of informative medical meetings in the old school, called “Santa Maria dei Battuti” in Mestre, which concern the problems related to elderly people.

NEWS FROM AFRICA

The missionary hospital St. Camillo, which is managed by Father Emilio Balliana, stands on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya, near Karungu village and near the Masai tribes.
During our first journey in this far but enchanting land, driven by the curiosity of the explorers such as the will to understand, why one of the poorest places in the world is so beautiful, we gathered some information about local tribes.

THE “MASAI”.

We were told that the Masai had lived on the banks of river Nile, a long time before Christ. The river had given them anything they needed to live. Afterwards they moved towards South: first to Ethiopia, next to Uganda till they arrived in an area called Rif Valley, in Kenya. Here they occupied, and still occupy, wide areas around Mt Kenya up to Mt Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania.
The Masai people, often, behave in a way, which is hard to understand for the western or European people, but which is full of meaning. Their richness depends on their cows and on their flocks of sheep; moreover it is due to the ground, which feeds the animals and this is the reason why they honour it like a faithful ally. They have the greatest respect for the ground: in order not to damage it, they leave dead animals as food for wild beasts, in this way they do not need to bury them or to dig a hole in the ground, that would be a profanation of a sacred place.
Even water must be respected by a Masai, because it represents a source of life. A true Masai man does not drink water from state wells, but only water given by mother nature, which comes from rivers and from rain.

THE “LUOS”.

Luo is a language and people, who speak it, are called Luos. Most of them live on the shores of Lake Victoria in the district of Nyanza. Their source of richness is agriculture, even though people living closer to the lake, usually give themselves up to fishing.
Sugarcane growing is considered very important by the Luos; as a matter of fact this sort of cultivation represents the 40% of the whole Kenyan production. This tribe, like the Masai tribe, is rich in traditions. Life, death, births, marriages and even names are always linked to the past to the earth, considered as a benevolent mother.

The “KISII”.

When we reach Nakuro, which is two hour’s drive from Nairobi, we can see the Kisiis’ plantations. They are tea plantations, and they are so wide, that we hardly can see the end of them. It’s hot, too hot, but the Kisii people seem not to feel it and keep on working among the fields in a very active way. Their lands stretch up to the borders between Kenya and Tanzania. This large and active tribe takes his name from the biggest town that is Kisii. They live on an upland which is 1000 mt above sea level, where it often rains, while in the most part of the African Continent, rain is quite rare. This is the reason why the productions of tea, but also coffee, pyrethrum and bananas are very good. Another source of richness for the tribe, is the “tabaka” stone (or soapy stone): it’s a sort of friable stone, which is very easy to be worked, and the Kisii people sculpt it and carve it with such a great ability, that they can realize authentic small masterpieces of the African art. Their subject are almost always scenes from the daily life, but what amazes most is that all the sculptors have a common feature: they represent people with proud carriage and proud expression. The Kisii need very little to live, or better, they are content with very little. Their circular huts (“manyatte”), made of branches and covered with mud, do not have any windows or chimneys, and the air comes in from the walls and from the front door. In their opinion children are the greatest richness and, in fact, the birth-rate is very high in this area, perhaps the highest in Kenya; this is the reason why most of the little orphans come from here.
Unfortunately these people are hardly hurt by A.I.D.S. Hundreds of children are left orphans of one or both parents every year.
When we got there we felt powerless on one side, because people constantly die and nobody can do nothing to avoid it; on the other side we felt disarmed, because in Africa you can realize how incorporeal richness can be. In other words richness deals with respect for life, as difficult as it can be, or simply with a smile, whoever wants to give it.

NEWS FROM KOSOVO - Marisa Da Lio
People are packed into carts, which are towed by old tractors along muddy mountains paths. This is the image of Kosovo that everybody knows. What’s more? Bombs, lots of bombs. Then Milosevich who accuses everything and everybody. Moreover aids. Three hundred humanitarian associations. Yes, because television is there and to be there means to exist, it’s just a simple equality. After a while television operators have gone and so most associations. In the conclusion, more or less, something good has been done by everybody.
Our experience in that land, that is only apparently far, while it is only 45 minutes flight from Rome, began because of a Caritas rebuilding project. Ermanno was responsible for the technical office, while I was giving a hand in a small hospital for lone people, supported and managed by the Sisters of Mother Theresa from Calcutta. I did not know anything about the Balkans, but a patient, a little nun, used to tell me something about the history of her people everyday. What amazed me most were both the passion and the resignation of her words. It seemed that she would say: “I trust you”, but also, “anyhow I know that nothing will change”.
People in Kosovo, or “Field of blackbirds” have been looking for their own identity, since St. Paul introduced the Word of God, as it is testified by the Holy Bible. We know very little about the earlier centuries, as if we tried to hide the Christian origins of these people. Afterwards, when the Slavs arrived, there was a dechristianization with a consequent separation from the Catholic Church in 1054. A very personal kind of religiosity took place, even though, sometimes, it was a public one handed on from the ancestors. Even if Christian people tried, in every way, to confirm their supremacy on these lands, they were repeatedly defeated by the Turks during the conclusive battles between the IV and the V centuries. This piece of ancient history, stands as origin of the modern prevalence of the Muslim Religion.
This is the way in which Sister Linda explained me why I was woken up by Muezin’s singing who was calling all the believers. The little nun, with her heart in her mouth and with tears in her eyes, told me how, at the beginning of the 90s, Milosevich started to clear out ethnics groups. 12500 people died, 6000 were not found anymore and about 2500 men and women were put into prison for political reasons. Anyhow Sister Linda is still here and we are with her, as long as we can.
I often wonder if we can really change something, but there’s no answer. Perhaps the answer is in that child, who, every morning, opens the gate of the hospital, smiles and says: “Think about Marisa” that is to say “Good morning”. So I think that I have to do anything I can, without making too many questions.
Anton is 9 years old. His parents were killed near their house by a sniper. Since that moment he has been living in the hospital with the nuns and with those who stay for a short time.
Anton talks about war in a very natural way as if he had not seen anything else in all his life. He tells that he does not want to get out of the convent, because, otherwise, somebody will pull his legs off, like Vladi, another little patient, who put his foot upon a mine. He tells how he found his mother and his father lying lifeless one beside the other, and consequently, how he lost any trace of his relatives. I cannot describe how I was feeling in that moment, I think I was stunned. Anyway I decided to help him. I thought he would like to go back to his country, to see if his relatives were still there, still alive. The following day I, hardly, managed to get him into the car; then we drove him to Glavicica, his birthplace which is 30 Km from Pec Hospital. The first thing to do was finding somebody who knew him. Usually the parish priest knows everything about everybody, this is the reason why I referred to him. The old priest let me understand that in the house on my left, the Sisters of Divine Charity, would be able to help me. So I did it. A very kind nun, told me that she knew Anton’s family very well, but nobody was left, apart an aunt, who had gone mad as a result of the war. The nun drew a sigh and told me that other 35 children were in the same situation. She told me also that they were already doing anything was possible to be done, but the small house they were living in, the old village school, had only five rooms, with seven children each and the nuns too. I felt powerless and this sensation is the worst memory I have from Kosovo. Even though, by thinking it over, I remember that 30 persons, at least, came to thank me before my return to Italy.
The following year we went back to Kosovo with another voluntary service project, sponsored by MASCI, the Scout group we take part in. The project dealt with the rebuilding of a drinking water well in Mirusha, a little town of 1500 inhabitants. These people were still drawing water from ditches, and not from deep wells, where everybody, even animals used to wash themselves. This water was, then, drunk and used to cook, so intestine diseases had become the normality.
In the end Ermanno managed to build the well and the image I remember with greatest fondness is related with the 1500 people who open the tap and see water coming out from it.
Then I went back to Glavicica, to the Sisters in the orphanage. Sister Anita gave me a kiss, and told she was very happy to see me again. She told me also that the children had grown to 56, because lots of mothers, who had been raped by the Serbian soldiers, had abandoned those new born children, and now the Sisters did not know how to accommodate them.
In the following days I thought over and over of Sister Anita, of Anton and of the hospital, and I wondered what I could do for them. I talked to Ermanno, who told me with a smile: “Let’s build a new house!” That sentence was a sort of illumination, so I ran to Sister Anita and I asked her what was her opinion about it. She burst into tears. Fortunately she collected herself immediately and accompanied me to the parish priest. The old priest told that he would place an area at disposal for the building of this house. As soon as we came back to Italy we got immediately to work and the association “Children in the world”, of which we are part, took in charge this idea with the realization of a project. Unfortunately, the funds we have been gathering up to now, thanks to the donations, are still not enough. We need other donations, we need Your donation, even if little.

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