Two years of reflection, discernment, study, the involvement of many people and professions, work and choices, and now it has finally started. "We've come a long way together with the whole educational team. There is the community that has always supported us, we have several volunteers ready to make themselves available to these young people, the members of the association 'La Melagrana' …," said the Director of the Scandicci work, Fr Giorgio Mocci, in a video.
For all this time, Don Bosco's famous phrase has been the guide, beacon and horizon of this journey's progress: "In each of these young people, even the most unfortunate, there is a point accessible to good. The task of an educator is to find that sensitive chord and make it vibrate."
The satisfaction for having started this path is now great. "'We're here' is the phrase that recurs most in the messages, in the calls, in the meetings we have had in recent days. And 'we're here' means 'being there', in a full, essential way, it means 'staying' ... to embrace, to meet, to smile, to cry, to talk, to listen," says Yuna Kashi Zadeh, President of the association “La Melagrana Aps”, which has always collaborated in the prevention and support activities for the families of the Salesian house.
The semi-residential community, located in a true and proper house, began its activities by opening its doors to the first four young people. In total, however, it will be able to accommodate up to 18 young people a day, males and females, aged 6 to 14, sent by the local social services or by the association itself. It will be open from Monday to Friday from 1 pm to 7 pm. All with a very specific goal: fostering relationships and fraternity.
Looking to Don Bosco, inserted in the educational framework of the Preventive System, the Salesians of Scandicci, with all the collaborators in the mission, start with this new and stimulating project. And while many close, they open.
"For us it is important to start this work of being close to children, especially those most in difficulty. We Salesians are here, in Scandicci, as we are in the whole world, for this reason: to be signs and bearers of God's love for young people," concludes Fr Mocci.
