The mothers of the Arsenal

The summer months and the beginning of the new year of activities at the Arsenale dell’Incontro have been an opportunity to meet many of the mothers of our children and young people with disabilities.

Many of them were offered the chance to take part in dedicated meetings, where they could bring out, in an atmosphere of friendship, understanding and mutual trust, their struggles, their joys, their feelings. It was a precious exchange that helped them, but also helped the educators who usually accompany their children to look at these mothers with a different gaze. They saw in them not only the people with whom they almost daily engage regarding the needs of the children we welcome, but also women who – like them – carry in their hearts suffering, hopes, desires, and who are looking for someone with whom to share them. And when you have the experience of recognizing yourself a little in the other, of understanding their reasons, of seeing them as similar to you… everything changes. We feel that this experience of closeness has been and will continue to be a precious help also in caring together for their children.

It was moving to see some elderly mothers – who had brought their older daughters with them “so that if you ask us to do activities that are too energetic, they can do them in our place” – instead put themselves on the line personally by taking part in a tug-of-war, tying a balloon to their ankle and then running around the hall trying to burst the other mothers’ balloons to the rhythm of music. This is how initially perplexed looks turned into smiles, into bright eyes, into a light that then also became gratitude: “It’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun.” And this light became the channel to go deeper, to look again at and begin to think together about the more tiring things with a different perspective.

The feeling we carry within us is that the Arsenale is becoming more and more a home for these mothers (as well as for many fathers), and therefore a place where they can also bring out all those struggles that usually do not leave the walls of their homes. And it is beautiful that this happens naturally, in an atmosphere of discretion and welcome that truly resembles that of a family, of a community. To these activities many one-to-one meetings have also been added.

Among all of them, we share the one with Mohammad’s mother (which we recount in the box). With her, over the years, we have shared tears and smiles, but every time we meet, the thanks we exchange are deeper and deeper. A thanks that for us is always synonymous with a great responsibility: to safeguard the good that these people find at the Arsenale, not to betray the great trust they place in us, always to seek new paths so that this home may continue to be “mother” … also to many mothers.

Mohammad’s mother told us that this year she is teaching at a university far from Madaba, and for this reason she and her husband had thought about moving the whole family to the city where she teaches. Mohammad, however, refused the idea and said to his mother: “If you want, you can go with my sisters, but leave me here in Madaba with dad, because I don’t want to leave the Arsenale dell’Incontro.” This mother, with her voice broken by emotion, added: “You know, for another child I wouldn’t have changed my mind, but for Mohammad I had no doubts. What he has found here is too important to force him to leave. So together with my husband we reconsidered our idea, and now I commute, getting up every morning at five.” While this mother speaks, memories of this son run through our minds. He is now a young adult, but he arrived here as a child more than ten years ago. At the beginning he was unable to communicate with anyone, and for this reason he carried a rage inside that often turned into great aggressiveness. Step by step we learned to understand him, and he felt loved… From that moment on, it was “easy” to walk together.

The Fraternity of Sermig in Jordan
NP October 2025