Pope provides assistance to the “invisible” in Calabria’s tent cities

By Salvatore Cernuzio

It’s a question of dignity, even more than clean clothes and blankets. In the tent city – or rather the “slum” of San Ferdinando, a Calabrian town of around 175,000 inhabitants – hundreds of African immigrants live in poverty and misery, while waiting for their residence permits. Many work in the fields, often without an employment contract. On November 27, the Pope’s charitable action arrived in this industrial area of ​​Reggio Calabria with the opening of the seventh “Pope Francis Laundry”, after those opened in the Italian cities of Rome, Genoa, Turin, Naples and Catania.

The initiative, developed and promoted by Procter & Gamble Italy, in collaboration with Haier Europe and supported by the Apostolic Chaplain and the Diocese of Oppido Mamertina-Palmi, is aimed at migrants, the poor and the homeless, in allowing them to wash their clothes and blankets and maintain personal hygiene. As expected, all services are completely free.

The tent city in San Ferdinando, province of Reggio Calabria, Italy

“Mopeds have license plates; we have nothing”

“This offers a way to restore the dignity of people who are not dying of hunger but because they feel invisible,” Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, papal chaplain, told Vatican media. The residents of San Ferdinando, mainly immigrants from Senegal, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast and other parts of Africa, have lived there for 15 years without even having an identity card . “When I went there, I asked them, ‘What do you need?’ Do you know what they told me? “We want to be seen!” » » recounted Cardinal Krajewski. “A young man looked me in the eye and said, ‘We’ve lived here for many years. We need documents. Mopeds even have license plates, but we human beings have nothing.’”

Laundry service for the many San Ferdinando residents in need of assistance

Help with documents

In addition to five showers and a laundry room equipped with four washing machines and four dryers provided by Procter & Gamble, another service will be made available to these “invisible” people of San Ferdinando: a “Help Desk” for those who need documents. assistance, explained Deacon Michele Vomera, director of diocesan Caritas. “We are talking about hundreds of migrant workers, up to 1,000 in winter and around 200 in summer.

There are at least 18 different nationalities in this tent city, which started as an emergency response and has now become a colony abandoned by authorities. These are people,” added Deacon Vomera, “who do not have access to a primary care doctor, who do not have a tax identification number and who lack what seems fundamental to us but which constitute for them insurmountable obstacles due to the complexity of the situation. The Italian bureaucracy.

The assistance service will be mobile, housed in a fire brigade container, explains Michele Vomera. He also announced another initiative: “We are about to sign an agreement to have another room where the Sisters of Charity can open a small Italian language school.”

Shower and laundry services offered for those who need them in San Ferdinando, Calabria

Shower and laundry services

The project includes several initiatives. There are even plans to add barber services, all interconnected to serve men (mostly 40-45, although the age range is 18-60) who don’t even have the services the most basic. These efforts are part of the gestures of hope and mercy that the Pope has called on dioceses around the world to implement in preparation for the upcoming Jubilee.

“What sign can we offer? » » asked Mgr Giuseppe Alberti. Many organizations already provide food, so hunger is not the main problem. Hygiene emerged as the most urgent need,” said Michele Vomera. “So, with Cardinal Krajewski, the bishop, and a wonderful synergy between various organizations, we came up with this project.”

The laundry will be managed by volunteers from Caritas Oppido Mamertina–Palmi. It is equipped with washing machines and dryers donated by Haier Europe and will be stocked with detergents like Dash and Lenor from Procter & Gamble, as well as cleaning products, personal hygiene products like Head & Shoulders shampoos and Pantene, as well as razors and shaving creams from Gillette. .

Inauguration of new services on November 27 thanks to the charitable action of the Pope

A supportive community

“For our community, this is a wonderful sign,” commented the director of Caritas, eager to describe the vibrant solidarity in the region, where “immigrants outnumber Italians.” The integration is “peaceful” and the relationships are “beautiful”. In addition to foreign workers, some Afghan families have settled in abandoned houses with subsidized rent. “Local residents cook and bring them food, and they return the favor with traditional dishes. They live peacefully, have created a small economy and manage two supermarkets. We can say that the city prospers thanks to these people.

In the midst of all this, the Pope’s charitable action arrived in San Ferdinando to remind everyone that “dignity does not mean living in a tent but having a house, clean clothes and the possibility of exchanging conversations with a neighbor “. In short, being “visible”.