Small and large children

Publish date 17-10-2022

by Marco Grosseti

From animators to animators, the stories of many young people who have chosen to be with the little ones

Precisely those who, as children, struggled more and more messed up, are now here every day to keep open that same door from which a few moons ago they too entered running.

 

In these days, Sermig has opened the doors of the spaces on the territory that he has managed to redevelop and restore to citizenship, welcoming the minors of the multi-ethnic Aurora and Barriera districts of Milan for the summer. A side entrance behind the Arsenale della Pace welcomes primary school children, while older children have found a home in the oratory of the parish of San Gioacchino. The different groups meet during the day in other parts of the city, with a view to a peaceful, colorful and noisy occupation of an increasingly child-friendly neighborhood.

The PalaSermig also becomes a privileged place during the holidays where you can stay and play together: 5-a-side football workshops, basketball, volleyball, tournaments and water games, the Social Circus project by the U.C.I. and a tiny little pool that to the little ones seems as big as the sea. The partnership with District 7 of the Municipality of Turin offers many hours of water, with dives and swims in the public swimming pools of the neighborhood; then there are the trips to explore pieces of green hidden in the gray of the city, taste for the first time the salty water of the sea and lose your breath for that blue strip that is lost on the horizon until you reach infinity, look for the courage to jump from the high slides of water parks that look like amusement parks.

The really special thing about this beautiful summer, however, is what makes it possible: 90% of the staff involved in welcoming and animating the little ones is not only made up of volunteers, but is made up of children who have grown up. a short time before, they invaded the same spaces demanding their need for attention and affection, for play and fun. They accepted with enthusiasm and commitment to become animators, alternating their hours made free of charge for the happiness of many little brothers and sisters who discovered they had, to study for high school or university exams, to the job to help the family, to their time dedicated to leisure and leisure.

Some are two meters tall and the children look at them from bottom to top wondering what the world is like from up there, while they hold that giant hand. Precisely those who, when they were children, struggled more and more messed up, are now here every day to keep open that same door from which a few moons before they too entered running; many children pass there looking for a little respite from the sad and ugly things of a complicated childhood with the super smile of someone who has left all problems out and just wants to enjoy a few hours of well-deserved happiness: the little friends who ran away from wars in Syria, Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine, those who have never gone on vacation or those who had to give it up at the last moment due to a serious health problem of those who take care of them.

It is all like a huge mirror in which everyone projects memories, emotions, desires and hopes: for the animators, helping children means finding themselves and the good they breathed in what they were until very recently; for the little ones, raising your eyes to the sky to intercept that gaze full of attention and affection, which accompanies their every step with care and magically fulfills their every request, is to see closely what one day not too far away they may be. The older ones know very well what the little ones need: they were them until a second ago. The little ones, on the other hand, have no doubt: the best thing about this new summer is the company of these brothers as big as a house and these sisters as sweet as sugar.

Their welcome hug helps to find a smile even for those who would have every reason to lose it, in the magic of restoring such a great asset, as to make people who belong to different civilizations become part of a single community and a ' one family.

Marco Grossetti
NP Giugno Luglio 2022

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