‘Dying of hope’: Sant'Egidio Summer, which began in mid-July in the refugee camps on the island of Cyprus, ended with a prayer dedicated to all those who lost their lives on the journey to Europe, in the camp of Pournara at the end of August.
All the camp guests (around 260) and another hundred or so asylum seekers living in Nicosia who attended language courses and other activities organised by the Community took part in the celebration. Together men and women of different faiths renewed this memory and the invocation that every migrant's life be protected and saved.
The conclusion helps to understand the meaning of this summer of solidarity: not just a collection of activities, but evidence of an inseparable bond with those who, fleeing war, hunger, violence, are looking for a future and stability in Europe. Yet it all too often takes a long time to arrive!
This is why 150 people from communities in different European countries (Italy, Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden) and various Italian cities (Rome and province, Naples, Milan, Mantua, Recanati, Novara, Florence, Livorno, Trento, Terni, Padua, Treviso) spent their holidays here. They prepared dinner every day for hundreds of people in the Friendship Tent, taught English and Italian to those hoping to find their destination in Europe. They taught peace to the youngest in the School of Peace, visited - for the first time - the prison where some migrants are often detained only for administrative irregularities and had parties with them and organised many other moments that conveyed, along with material aid, the feeling of being welcomed in an atmosphere of fraternity with no borders.
