Red Cross Better Shelters and Manpower Project Proposal

We met with the Red Cross on Feb 9th.  They had a Manpower proposal for a pilot project just for LDS Charities.  The idea is to provide opportunities for job placement for the refugees.  Normally we would have been 100% on board.  However just 2 days prior we received our 2018 budget.  It was cut by 75%! thus all of our partners will also be cut by 75%.  It's a very painful process to let our partners know about this drastic reduction.  Also reduced is how much we can support actual salaries.  So it's a cut in what we can fund and how we can fund.  This has been a painful process and we have only informed Red Cross and Intersos.  Intersos said, "Well at least there is still some money" Then we told them about the salary restrictions.  They replied "It was bad news but the salary restriction is REALLY bad news".  Ugh.

This Red Cross team basically manages the Better Shelters that are on the Red Cross Campus.  Saying they have their hands full is truly an understatement!  We are so grateful that we were able to provide the better shelters in 2017 when we were 'flush' in funds!

All the beds are occupied in this better shelter campus except for 3 beds.  There are currently 143 residents.

The canteen area

Hanging out.  I like that the LDS Charities logo is prominently displayed.

We had a chance to meet and talk with a few of the residents.  I was sitting next to Ola and both of the girls are from Nigeria.  They have been in Italy for about a year.

I don't think the guy next to me was too interested in making a silly photo.

A view of the campus.  It's not 'full' during the day, but there is a midnight curfew and then it's full.

We enjoy working with the Red Cross.  A positive, hard working, dynamic group of people.  The Red Cross had submitted a total of 5 projects for us to consider.  There is the National, Regional, and local chapters of the Red Cross.  We had to tell them that we have 20 partners to inform about our budget cut, and that Red Cross is just one partner.  The funds aren't going to go very far.


And to give you the update for the refugee situation in Italy for 2017.  From the news:

The number of new migrants to arrive in Italy reached 337,000 in 2017, a rise of 12% with respect to 2016 and the highest level of the last five years, ISTAT said on Thursday. It said the number of people to emigrate from Italy last year was 153,000, down 2.6%, for a positive net balance of 184,000.  This compared to a net rise of 144,000 in 2016 when incoming and outgoing migrants are calculated. (Ansa)

-- At least 10,000 asylum seekers and refugees in Italy between 2016 and 2017 were living in an estimated 47 "informal settlements", including occupied buildings, or stranded at the border in the northern cities of Ventimiglia, Como, Gorizia and Bolzano without access to basic necessities and medicines, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a report out on Thursday.  In the report 'Fuori campo', or offscreen, MSF said that these asylum seekers and refugees were not part of the official system, although they were residing on Italian territory.