The project was launched on Sunday 12 February at the Salesian Institute of the Sacred Heart at San Gregorio. It began wish a shared meal and and a football tournament between the foreign children cared for by the Salesians and the boys of the Cultural Association "The little Prince - Nino with the young” which also works for very needy young people.
At the centre of the project there will be sport, theatre, music and dance, activities that will be part of a show about immigration in order to raise awareness of the phenomenon and give an opportunity to all the young people, foreigners and local, to express their feelings.
One of the actors will be little Matthew, a nine-year-old child with a severe disability. He feels loved and welcomed at the Institute and overcomes every difficulty. He has become a model and a key animator for the entire community. In this project, he will also get the opportunity to act on stage, something he has wanted to do for a long time.
Matthew was the star of the opening ceremony. According to Fr Cristian Philip Scuderi, one of the Salesians who works at the Institute, "Matthew started off the project by going into the goals with his walking-aid. Then he sat on the field, a real champion of life like all the other young people with their different skills and all the foreign children with their difficult stories. The shared suffering was the key to immense inner wealth and happiness."
What makes this project original is the total integration and the knocking down of barriers which can happen in an exchange between foreign children who have fled from war and poverty and young Italians with different skills. There is a richness in their diversity which becomes a resource, and a model of working together for the common good.
