Ventimiglia projects

The computers and internet were donated by Doctors without Borders.  LDS Charities provided rent for the Info Point for 6 months.  There was a parish in the area which was shut down because the neighbors complained, and that was the focal point, but now this infopoint has taken the place of the parish.

With such a need to use computers and phone charging, you have to make an appointment!  Here is Farouck hard at work.  He is a refugee and works the desk.  I believe his salary is 80 euros/month.

Phone charging for the refugees.  They are in transit so having access to electricity is something that is really needed.

The lawyer donates her time, 3 times per week and lives near Genoa!

Clothing donations.  From this room they can accept donations and well as distribute the clothes to those in need.  Sarah is the driving force behind the whole project:  Progetto 20K. She is 20 years old and is a college student!  LDS Charities provided the rent for this space which includes the computers/phone charging/lawyer space.

Our boss:  Gilles Francois.  We are touring the now disbanded complex of Don Rito, Caritas Priest.  The wooden house in the background was funded by LDS Charities to provide a space for the TDH (Terre des hommes) lawyer to give advice and counsel.

Don Rito (Caritas Priest) and Federica, who is the Terre des homme Head of Advocacy and with whom we discuss our TDH projects with.  She lives in Milan and has 2 children.  Her husband restores old cars.  You work with these people enough you really get attached.

Don Rito is the priest here, which was once a thriving living complex for women and children.  The neighbors didn't like it and the police were forced to shut it down.

Touring the Red Cross Camp with Terre des hommes.  TDH focuses on women and minors.  They are also in Sicily at the hotspots.

She was sweet and happy and was excited to practice her English!  Her name was Sarah and she is 8 years old.

These two men are from Iraq.  One had lived in Finland for 2 years, the other in Sweden.  They have to be in Italy to process their papers because this was their country of embarkment.  They live in the Red Cross Camp.

Red Cross Camp.  Some get to sleep in trailers of 6 people.  These unlucky souls get the huge tent with what seems like an innumerable amount of beds.  No privacy here!

Oxfam, WeWorld, Chiesa Valdese.  All working in the streets with the transitory refugees.

WeWorld was setting up a radio station direct from Sudan.  The boys were anxious to hear news from home.

The migrants that are in transit live under the freeway.  No toilets, running water, electricity.  They only stay a few days because they try on a daily basis to get across the border into France.  How?  Walk through the mountains mostly, but there are police and drones making sure they don't make it.

They figure that right now there are about 200 living under this bridge.  As I said, daily they try to cross into France.  Most get caught and sent back to Italy.  So sleep and try again when you wake up!

This lady refused to go to the Red Cross camp because her husband had left two days earlier to cross into France and told her to wait for him.  So there she sat, waiting for him.  

Intersos is also a group we work with.  Here is one of the workers taking down information.  One of the boys was a minor and was trying to be unified with family in England.  The other boys have no family anywhere.

Home sweet home.  It does break your heart.  It seems so hopeless.  How will it all end.  Or will it ever end?

Red Cross, Intersos, and Como San Martino Parish

As I said in my last post, Frankfurt wants information:  So here are some of the updates on a few of our projects:

Red Cross project #193:  LDS Charities bought 30 mobile containers to replace deteriorated tents.  Also 8 containers for sanitary services, one for a canteen service, one for staff, one for an infirmary.

We have also done an update on Intersos project#309.  We helped provide intercultural mediators, educators, psychologists, and funds for a mobile clinic van.  Intersos runs a camp for minors and women.  The building they were given to use by the municipality needed major renovations which were paid for by other donors.  I'll include one of those photos just to show the amazing transformation!  LDS funds paid for the team to implement a speedy Family Reunification system.

You really cannot imagine how dilapidated the building was!  Sadly, I think there are many of these buildings in Rome that have gone into severe disrepair.  It just takes a lot of money to get them renovated and suitable for habitation.

Inside the newly renovated dorm room.  IKEA donated the new furniture.  Tom is talking with the Director:  Cesare

The newly renovated kitchen.  There is also new bathrooms, showers and changing rooms.  There is a new room for highly vulnerable women (these are usually women with children or with severe psychological problems)  There is a medical room with a front desk and two working medical halls.  It's a very impressive complex.

The Intersos mobile medical van for which LDS Charities funded.  The van is a very needed resource for the refugee community.

Now we are in Como checking out our CARITAS Como project #472 and #473.  Don Guisto is a priest who runs a refugee camp in his Parish.  The work he and his staff accomplish is beyond good.  I'm sure their hearts are made of solid gold.  LDS Charities provided funds for some of their residents to attend an agricultural school where they obtained a certificate and are now employable.  We interviewed 4 of these boys.  They go to school 4 days per week.  In the morning it's paperwork, and in the afternoon they use what they learned in practice.  Much of their training is with agricultural machinery.

Lamin Marong from Senegal.  He was born in 1993 and came to Italy in 2014.

Fouma Conde from Guinea born in 1998.  He came to Italy in 2015.

Daniel Marong from Gambia born 1997.  He came to Italy in 2016, one year ago.

Ali Fall.  He is from Mauritania (near Senegal....I had to look it up on the map!) He was born in 1988 and he has been in Italy since 2007.

I wanted to add a picture of the Priest, Don Guisto.  One look at him and you see kindness all over his face.  We couldn't have accomplished this project without the help of the Stake Public Affairs Director of Milan West Stake, Moreno Gianotti.  He has put so much effort into the project as well.  We think so highly these people.

How much good can one man do?  A lot!

Don Guisto the CARITAS priest.  He houses 70 residents in his parish.  At night they allow another 30 to spend the night on mattresses on the floor.  His biggest concern now is for the exploited women.  He has 10 babies currently housed in his parish!

Moreno is the Stake Public Affairs director who has put a lot of time into our projects with the Parish.  Here he is with one of the workers at the parish.

Refugees. Still in Crises???

September hits with a rush of activity.  We have had some very interesting conversations with Frankfurt.  Is there still a refugee crises?  The numbers arriving are definitely down, but Italy is still saturated.  There are still needs, but not what was forecast.  Will there be a new direction?  Only time will tell.  So in the meantime, we keep working!  We have also had requests from Frankfurt:  send us your projects, today!  Send us your ideas about where you see the refugee crisis currently in Italy:  today!
It's all good.  Keeps us on our toes!

Anziano Adepoju has had a place on our blog previously.  He came over on a boat, found the church and is now a full time missionary, and has his Italian documents now!    We had him to ourselves for a few days so we took advantage of that fact and took him to Tiburtina train station to  chat with the refugees there.

You put a missionary on a metro and they can't help themselves.  A captive audience!  He gave a pass along card to this lucky guy seated next to him.

We spend lots of our days on the metro getting from one place to the next.  Thank goodness because driving in Rome in not fun at all!

At Tiburtina station, this is the camp that is run by Baobab.  These are a portion of the tents that we purchased for their guests.

I ask if I can take a picture of them....and what do they do?  They want a picture with me in it!  I think they like the idea of a picture with a white person.  Pretty funny.

This is Anziano Huntsman.  Better know to the Herways as 'grumpy boy'....but we didn't bring that up, promise.  Last time we saw him he was 4 years old.  I asked him what he remembers about Brussels.  "Nothing.  Except when our house was full of boxes and I couldn't figure out what was going on."

At the mission home, known as the Villa.  These new missionaries are fresh off the plane from the MTC.

Anziano Huntsman points to his first assignment.  So fun to watch how excited the new missionaries were to get their assignments.  Here is President Pickerd.  His wife is still in the US.  Her breast cancer treatment is going well, she has completed her surgery as well as two chemo sessions.  We expect her next week to arrive in Rome where she will complete the last 4 chemo treatments here.  We are all praying she will have a fast recovery.  Both Tom and I think very highly of the Pickerds.  They are nothing short of amazing.  100% dedication, all the way.  In the month of August they were both in the US to take care of Sorella Pickerds surgery and we had Christian Eurvard and his wife (from Paris) take the mission reins in the Pickerds absence.  They were also perfect for the job and we enjoyed spending time with them.

August in Rome is too HOT

I didn't post at all during August.  We pretty much stayed put.  The whole of Italy was on vacation, mostly trying to escape the unrelenting heat.  It seemed it would never end.  It was quite a brutal summer to be honest.  Most days it was 36C to 38C and sometimes it would hover at 40C.  There was no rain whatsoever and because of the drought there was always the threat of water rationing (which never materialized thank goodness!)

Since this is my photo journal however, I will add a few photos so that August isn't completely forgotten.

We got our Italian Permesso!  So we are legally here in Italy.  Hooray.

Farewell dinner for the Guercio couple. (sitting just across from us).  When they left it took 8 people to volunteer to take over their jobs.  Their replacements don't arrive until mid-Sept.

This family and ours keeps over-lapping.  On the far right is Luigi and Louiza De Matteis.  They are the parents of Emanuela  DeLillo who is in the red.  Louiza is the RS President of Rome 1.  Emanuela is the RS President in our ward in Brussels!  Little Mattia is next to me and we taught him in Sunbeams.  

Our District.  They were the only ones who sang happy birthday to Tom on his b.day!  They did a great job of it.

Random update

Perfect, right?  This street is in Trastavere section of Rome.  

We met up again with Muhammed and Abraham.  This time Muhammed's wife ZiZi came along (she is 18).  She is having a boy in a few weeks and she is naming him Thomas (from what we understand, the baby is named after Tom!)  Also in the photo is Claudia.  She served a mission in Canada and she is very often my translator.  We get to home teach Claudia.  She is awesome and very talented and made our friends feel very welcome when we brought them to the Institute building downtown for Taco Tuesday.

At the bookstore they had a pamphlet called "Welcome to Italy" for Refugees.  Written in 3 languages and very helpful on many topics such as medical, legal, where to sleep if you are on the street, where to go for food, all arranged by cities in Italy.  It's an incredible book of information and we wanted our friends to have it especially because Muhammed and ZiZi are going to try to go to France before the baby is born.  If born in Italy, the baby will still be considered from Sierra Leone where the parents are from.  I'm not sure what will be the status of the baby if born in France, but they are going to try to get across.  I am so worried about them.  We tried to warn them of the dangers and the unlikely chance of getting across.  

Our District was over for Saturday lunch.  

The next 4 photos are of Abraham Asuleme and he is 30 years old.  We had an interview with him and he had prepared himself to tell us his story.  He is from Nigeria.  Born of a polygamous family, he was the 2nd child of the 2nd wife.  Mom died and his life became very difficult.  At 17 he was on his own as his sister got married.  He had 2 step brothers that one fateful evening came to the house and wanted him to leave b/c they wanted to take ownership of the house (even though it was rightfully his at the death of his mother).  There were arguments and several weeks later they came to kill him.  Cut his finger off, stabbed him several times (he showed us one stab wound on his back, last photo).  He managed to run away.  A passerby saw him and took him to his house and treated him.

After that incident (again showing some of the signs of the damage that his step brothers inflicted on him, can't bend his finger) he decided to flee.  He didn't want to be a burden on his married sister, so he borrowed money from her and left for Niger.  From there he was kidnapped.  The man put him in prison and told him to call his family at home and to tell them to send money to get him out of prison.  He wouldn't do it and was in the prison for 3 months treated very badly.  He and a friend that were both in the prison made a hole in the wall each day while the man was out and eventually broke through the wall and escaped.  They ran and ran.

They went to a mosque where they were praying.  A man approached them with a gun.  They listened.  They thought they were being offered a legitimate job.  They were given guns to be guards.  Turns out they were to guard a fenced camp full of boys.  He told the man, "I can't do this" and left.  He turned to begging in the streets to survive.  "I had no other option"  He was in Libya now and he was told he should try to get to Italia.  He saw the sea and he was afraid.  His 'boat' was just a piece of wood.  He was on the boat for 2 days and never ate but he had no appetite because of his fear and then they were rescued by a big ship.  They were on this ship another 5 days before the Italian rescue boat came.  He landed on Lampedusa.  He was there one night, and then brought to Rome.  He currently lives in a camp about 45 min by train from Rome. (Roma Point Camp run by the Red Cross)

(Photo of his stab wound on his back.)  The missionaries found him on the train.  He resisted their offers to talk but they were insistent.  Eventually he came to church.  Afterwards he told his friend "I went to a church that is full of white people."  and his friend replied "They are going to suck your blood."  He responded, "I felt something.  It's different.  I want to give these guys (missionaries) a try."  He said he was feeling the spirit.  He stopped smoking.  He realized his body was a temple.  He is a big football player and when he quit smoking he could run and play.  He felt the change in his physical body.  He knew he could have the same change in his spiritual body.  He joined the church on Sept 19, 2015.  He currently works construction at the temple site.  His sister wants him to come back to Nigeria.  He wants to start his life here in Italy.  If he had a little brother his advise would be "Don't come.  The risk I took?  No, don't do it"

Baobab is an organization we partner with.  They are the grassroots group that we are so impressed with.  We visited one evening for the football game.  LDS Charities has rented the field so they have something to look forward to each week.  Here are some of the guys.

Washing up after the game.  Rome is having a heat wave and the game, although fun took all their energy!

Momo on the left.  Don't know the other two guys.  Field is behind them.  A pretty dusty game!

Back at the Baobab camp.  Here is Francesca taking photos of each refugee so they are prepared when they go to get their promesso at the Questura.  (The identity card from the police station)

LDS Charities has purchased 1200 rubber shoes.  (crocs)

The food line.  They were patiently waiting.  It was nearing 9:00pm and no food in sight yet.  

On the fence they had put up this sign that the refugees had drawn.  "Good Baobab People" and it shows them all holding out a plate to get some food and the angel Baobab people piling food on the table for them to come and help themselves to the food.

On Saturday, Baobab took 80 refugees by train to Ostia and the beach.  The boys were sooooo happy!

This poor little tree.  It was the only greenery we had by our apartment.  It was just off of our balcony but it got diseased and has been cut back to the stub.  Very sad.  We are especially sad, b/c now we have no greenery to look at when we go outside of our house.  Still, every day I am grateful for the A/C.  I hope it never breaks!