The migrants who have been participating in Sant'Egidio's activities in Cyprus in recent weeks are eager for a future, for a new life after the horrors of war and persecution, and are not afraid of hard work.
You can see it in the language classes - English and Italian - opened by the Community in Nicosia, in Larnaca and in the refugee camp in Pournara, packed with young people and adults of a great variety of origins - Somalia, Congo, Cameroun, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Nigeria. And again Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan. All places that are, in different but always dramatic ways, the scene of humanitarian tragedies. People have to abandon their home in search of a safe life elsewhere.
Receiving the language certificates for the first course - the second has just started - was a confirmation for the students they attended the course with commitment and seriousness. School and friendship restore hope. A sign that it is possible to rebuild life after the horrors of war and persecution.
Joy and emotion were on everyone's face, including the Community teachers, young people and adults who chose to spend their 'holiday' with asylum seekers, an opportunity for encounters that offer a different understanding of the world.
Children, too, enjoy school as a space where they can experience a normal childhood. The School of Peace is being held for them in the refugee camps in Kofinou and Limnes, some 40 km from the capital. The joy of being able to take paper, notebooks and colours in their hands is quite touching.
Many of them have never attended school or have long since abandoned it. And we should not underestimate - along with the many hardships of life in the refugee camp - the anxiety that the little ones feel, as they share with their parents the wait - generally 8-9 months and all too often disappointing - linked to the request for political asylum or the dramatic frustration of those who, after rejection, are awaiting repatriation.
School, therefore, for children as for young people and adults, is a breach in the wall that separates from a peaceful future. That is why it plays such a part in the presence of Sant'Egidio in the refugee camps, which is indeed friendship, refreshment, tasty food, but above all a seed of hope.
