Sermig, network for development onlus

Sermig was born with a dream: to defeat hunger with works of justice and development, and, living in solidarity with the poorest, to take steps on the path of peace. Hunger and misery are still today a scandal that continues to kill tens of thousands of people every day, despite the fact that there are resources to give life to everyone. Full life, not only made up of a lot of effort and no security. But the world is our common home, to be guarded, and all of humanity one single family, which has its present and future in children. And we have well understood that to change it we need to start from our home, finding a sober and open lifestyle, a vision that makes us live simply so that everyone can simply live. In the freedom to put what we are, what we have, at the service of the common good in a great non-violent revolution of emotion and intelligence.

The dream becomes a method: Sermig promotes and supports human development initiatives and projects. In 55 years, more than 3,680 have been created, offered to people of 154 nationalities; and 77 peace actions in countries at war. Everything comes from the encounter with people and communities, with their reality of life, opening up to build a relationship. To grow together in the ability to be, to act, to choose; sharing deep values, spirituality; strengthening an involved, responsible and supportive community dimension. The commitment is first of all to give Life to children: to open them a worthy future, through access to safe water, health, education, a profession, improving the living conditions of the whole community; with the respect due to the disabled, the poorest of the poor. Of course, realizing change implies a priority attention to women, everywhere the most propulsive and responsible element, activating their precious abilities: where women are well, everyone is better; hence the schooling of girls and boys, up to the highest levels.

More and more income generation and market access projects are being stimulated for small producers, to foster entrepreneurship and professionalism. Starting from enhancing local opportunities, so that the villages can live, people stay on their land, avoiding the illusion of hopeless urbanization. The beneficiaries become responsible protagonists, thus ensuring sustainability over time, and the generation of resources to autonomously support works for the community as well. The creations thus aim to become engaging, replicable models and proposals for other realities.

The key is not just shared resources: the heart are skills, knowledge, professionalism, organized and shared with passion in free. The actions are developed thanks to the strong participation of a 'technical volunteer' made up of experienced and highly motivated friends. In particular with the study and experimentation of technological solutions that offer concrete answers to the most common and vital problems: safe water for human consumption, hygiene, techniques and tools for agriculture and livestock, food conservation, availability of energy from the sun ... Functional and suitable solutions, at low cost, achievable on site or at least manageable independently. Tools that are hard to find because they do not represent an attractive market today, but which are an essential support for significant steps forward in giving life.

Thanks to many other friends, other important resources also enter the field: the collection of materials is carried out permanently: foodstuffs, drugs, clothing, school supplies, hygiene products, work tools, machine tools, sewing , electrical equipment, computers ... A careful selection and fine-tuning restore their value: they become important elements that enhance the initiatives, and the possibility of immediate help to meet emergencies.

Drafting Sermig
NP may 2021