One of the most beautiful sentences of Don Bosco to express his love for the young and the basic principles of his educational system: "I promised God that until my last breath it would be for my poor youth. I study for you, for you I work, for you I live. For you I am also willing to give (my) life. Be aware that everything I am, it is all – and I am everything - for you, day and night, morning and evening, at any time."
The "Io per voi studio" of Don Bosco di Cinecittà, made by us more modern and youthful in XteStudio, is a service that was born operationally in February 2017, but in my mind and heart it is since September 2016 when, two days after graduation, I received a telephone call from the Salesian oratory that proposed work for a new project to me. I accepted because my path of study was born from the desire to dedicate myself to the young people of my neighborhood, having attended the oratory and the school together with the companions who lived great wounds in their family and in their context.
The "XteStudio" became for me the service to which I was called despite work proposals: I knew that those hours spent were what I had to do for my person, my studies, my heart and my love for the place and for the district. I have always worked in the oratory as an animator, but here I knew that my professionalism and my desire to devote myself to the boys in a more specific way were at play.
The "XteStudio" was created to respond to a strong need of the neighborhood that sees so many children in risk of dispersion and school abandonment due to learning difficulties and above all due to a strong situation of discomfort in their family. Once the child is welcomed, he begins to enter into a real family with people to open to, to speak to, to play with, with whom to take this part of their journey in their lives. We have seen how free (and unconditioned) love rekindles the children in the carefree and joy that their years must live and experience.
This service has undoubtedly helped me in the conversion of the heart. The one who has always guided me is the Lord who immediately made me understand that those 12 boys and 20 volunteers were His work.
