Migrants help migrants at Rome’s Sant’Egidio community

“All roads lead to Rome, no?!” says Hamza, a 29-year-old Moroccan migrant who is now working as an intercultural mediator with Italy’s Catholic Sant’Egidio Community. Hamza arrived in Italy by way of Ukraine, he says explaining the context behind his joke.

“I was studying energy engineering in Odessa and got my master’s degree. Although foreign embassies had warned and advised us to leave Ukraine for our safety, many didn’t think war was coming in February 2022. But the Russians began bombing the ports and gunfire rattled many regions,” explained Hamza, who uses only his first name. “I knew I couldn’t stay there as a foreigner.”

Making it out safely was an initial problem because many roads were bombed. But Hamza and three other Moroccans and a Ukrainian did eventually find a way to a health station in neighboring Moldova, set up to care for COVID patients. From there, they were able to move shortly afterwards to Romania and then, by train through Hungary and Austria, before arriving in Italy. He credits the kindness and generosity of the many along the way who provided food, shelter, and transport.

Read Also
Sant’Egidio: New work corridors will benefit 300 people in a year

‘The only thing I knew then about Rome was the Colosseum and food’

“The only thing I knew then about Rome was the Colosseum and Italian food,” explains Hamza, originally from outside Casablanca.

“I have found that Italy is very good. It’s the Mediterranean and for me, it’s like home with its weather, kind people, and its religious and spiritual atmosphere. There’s a respect for different religions and that’s more important than anything else for me,” the soft-spoken man explains.

Hamza quickly turned up at the Sant’Egidio community located in Rome’s colorful artistic Trastevere district. The Christian community founded in 1968 in Rome and now spread to 70 countries started helping migrants, asylum seekers and refugees first with Italian lessons in the 1980s. The ministry has grown exponentially, offering a variety of social services to some 600 people weekly in Rome.

Read Also
More humanitarian corridors to Rome from Cyprus and Pakistan

Social, cultural and linguistic support

“We provide different social support activities such as food packages, used clothing, legal advice, aid for those looking for work, cultural orientation, and psychological and educational support to help refugees and migrants live with dignity in Italy,” explains Cecilia Pani. 

A dynamic organizer, Pani has overseen the community’s various efforts aiding the displaced both domestically and internationally, while also coordinating Sant’Egidio’s Humanitarian Corridor program, especially for Sudanese, Eritrean, Yemeni and other refugees sheltering in Ethiopia.

At the Sant’Egidio center, located in a now defunct hospital, people register for activities, some wait their turn to take showers, others enjoy a quiet cozy reading spot, while still some others receive psychosocial support. A meal to break the recent Ramadan fast was also offered.

Read Also
Afghan refugee:’I am safe, not a slave, thanks only to humanitarian corridors’

Intercultural mediation

Hamza, who speaks five languages, including Ukrainian, Arabic and Italian, was able to receive intercultural mediation training through Sant’Egidio at a university level involving studies in sociology, psychology, law, and human rights issues. He completed his university course this year and now works at Sant’Egidio providing counseling to those in need.

Some refugees he has worked with are Palestinians from Gaza requiring specialized medical treatment in Italy, due to injuries sustained during the recent conflict.

“You have to give people encouragement and hope. One man was suffering a spinal cord injury that has left him paralyzed. I am encouraging him to continue to study, despite his physical limitation of not being able to walk,” says Hamza.

“I haven’t been back to my home country since COVID times,” he says. “I also lost some family members. All of this is coming together for me and it’s still raw. But I am able to speak with my family by phone and some even managed to visit me here,” says Hamza.

Read Also

Italy: 1,200 Afghans to arrive with humanitarian corridors

‘The new social workers are foreign migrants’

“Some of the people seeking help at Sant’Egidio are experiencing severe trauma and they are unable at this time to speak about what they passed through and what’s hurting them. But we are here to help,” Hamza underscores.

“Sant’Egidio wants to see refugees and migrants work with dignity at their own level. People who have a background in migration can understand much better, can bring fresh ideas and solutions to the newcomers,” Pani explains.

She adds that Italy also needs this kind of practical experience and understanding of refugees and migrants who have become intercultural mediators to work alongside public institutions, like schools, hospitals, and the police as demographics change in Europe.

“The new social workers are foreign migrants. They can introduce and spread a different kind of culture. Institutions will soon understand the importance that these people can bring to the job. Working as an intercultural bridge, they can help these institutions greatly and the people they serve,” Pani says.

Read Also
Humanitarian Corridors bring 54 Syrian refugees to Italy

Ali’s tale

Ali, from Afghanistan, spent most of his 37 years without any identity. He, too, is now an intercultural mediator at Sant’Egidio, but it took a long circuitous route to finally obtain a proper identity and the much-needed documentation. 

Ali, who uses only his first name, says his family fled his homeland sometime during the Soviet-Afghanistan war (1979-1989) for safety to neighboring Iran, where he was born in the prominent Shiite religious center of Qom. Although he was able to attend a school for gifted children in Iran and received his diploma, Ali was prohibited from pursuing university studies because he was a refugee. He decided to leave Iran because he would never have been able to engage in further studies, have a job, or secure other rights enjoyed by citizens there.

His first stop was Turkey in 2009, then Greece, while he tried to earn money needed to travel onward. He lived in Norway for four years before being faced with possible deportation. All along, Ali still was unable to obtain the identity documents he had been hoping for.

Finally, in 2016, he arrived in Italy and applied for asylum. “After one year, I received protection. I got my documents. At the age of 30, I finally got my identity documents, and I bought a SIM card in my own name,” Ali recounts proudly, smiling broadly.

“I remember this so well because until that moment, I had no legal identity. It was a big shock for me and the biggest celebration of my life,” he says.

Ali heard from a friend about the community of Sant’Egidio. “I came and registered. Then, slowly I got to know people and the spirit of the community, and I worked as a volunteer,” Ali says.

Read Also
Italy: Plans for humanitarian corridor for 50,000 from Libya

Studying and working

Like Hamza, Ali too began studying intercultural mediation, earning a diploma initially, and later completing a university degree in the same subject. After volunteering at Sant’Egidio, he was eventually offered a job there as a mediator and counselor.

“For the past six years, I have been working as an intercultural mediator and social worker where my personal insights and understanding are being used to help refugees coming from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Greece and Cyprus. I’m also working directly on Sant’Egidio’s Humanitarian Corridor projects,” Ali says, his eyes glistening proudly.

“Now I am part of the big family of Sant’Egidiio,” Ali says. “I lost some of my time as a youth, but at the age of 30, I was able to develop myself, attend university and find a job.”

“I’m really very happy in Italy because it’s where I really started my life and where I was able to develop at the Sant’Egidio community,” says Ali. For me, it’s so important that I, too, am able to give life and hope again to people here. I experienced some of the same problems in my life that they too have encountered and I want to help them.”

Read Also
Humanitarian corridors to Rome reopen

‘The biggest gift’

“The moment I got my identity documents, I felt I got the biggest gift. So, I know how others feel,” Ali says. He wants to use his understanding and empathy on behalf of others.

Pani also explains the importance of Sant’Egidio’s Humanitarian Corridors project to provide a safe and successful way to migrate to Italy.

“For the past ten years, we have faced the problem of illegal migration and terrible deaths of thousands during the perilous journey,” she explains.

Sant’Egidio, along with the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, Caritas, the Tavola Valdese and the Italian Bishops Conference, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Italian government in December 2015 to make direct contact and identify refugees in relevant countries for consideration by the Italian government to obtain legal asylum and safe passage to Italy. The Humanitarian Corridors are self-financed by these associations.

Safe passage

“Since February 2015, we have brought more than 9,000 people to Europe; about 8,000 to Italy and some 1,500 to France and Belgium. Most are Syrian refugees who were living in Lebanon; Afghans in Pakistan and Iran; Eritreans, Sudanese, South Sudanese and Somalis sheltering in Ethiopia and other nationalities, mainly West Africans, in Libya. There are others who fled to Cyprus,” says Pani.

She explains the importance of counselors going to different countries to meet and interview the refugees, in order to know and support them. The preparation work helps them to succeed in Italy, Pani says, and to find their way, while envisioning their possibility of integration in Italy.

“It needs time to understand them and time to trust us. Sometimes, if it’s too short, they cannot manage,” Pani explains. More recently, a memorandum of understanding has been opened with the French government, permitting some to go there.

About 400 people are in Rome with Sant’Egidio via the Humanitarian Corridor program so far. “Some have become independent and help to support our project. Some have found jobs, but have difficulty locating housing, so they are now in temporary shelters or live together. Others also bought apartments,” Pani says.

A tale of redemption

An issue concerning Pani and the community right now though is the story of three Sudanese sisters, all professional women with children, who have lost their husbands due to the conflict in their country and who are currently sheltering in Ethiopia. They are waiting to be included in the Humanitarian Corridors program, Pani says, but is not able to say when they might be able to travel to Italy. However, she hopes that it will be soon.

While she waits, she recounts a memorable story. An Eritrean man arrived in Italy by boat after journeying through the desert of northern Africa a couple of years ago. He was sick with a blood disease and had difficulty walking when he came to Sant’Egidio for help.

Broken and living on the street, Pani located his wife and six-year-old daughter, to help them come to Italy to see the man before he died. They arrived via the Humanitarian Corridor program and things begin to change for this family.

“They lived together for two years in one room in a group house. The wife found a job. Later, she became pregnant, and the man eventually was completely healed due to the medical treatment he received,” Pani says.

“A congregation of nuns in Rome, later approached Sant’Egidio requesting a woman to help take care of their building and offered a small apartment inside the space for the family to live and raise their children,” Pani says, of this remarkable tale of redemption. “There are many such stories,” she adds.