To become a community

You've to go down for some streets to get to I Girasoli Onlus. It's large square building without cladding, with some broken shutters... yesterday Jubaër, here since 1 year and 2 months, told me < at the beginning I didn't believe that this was the reception center >.

Well, neither do we... Then, approaching, we begin to see colors which say: «NO RACISM», «PLEASE, PEACE», «LET’s CULTURE MIX», «WE ALL BELONG TO THE SAME RACE: HUMANITY». I Girasoli Onlus was founded in 2007 by a group of friends of Mazzarino, city of 10,000 inhabitants in the center of Sicily. It started with an apartment in the city center that welcomed foreign youngsters, then an entire building with a greater capacity, then a family center in Riese, an adult center in Caltanisetta and at Sutera. < At the beginning we didn’t know how to do it, we didn’t have any experience in this job- says Liria, who's part of the group of friends. -Gradually the association grew as a large family, new people joined, others left, others returned>

This is the case of Ali, welcomed fifteen years ago by the center and returned years later to work as a social worker. He tells us: < I was part of the first group of young people welcomed: it was not normal to met strangers in Mazzarino. Racism was felt even more than today. Inhabitants came directly to the door to ask for explanations >. The young welcomed wait for the regularization of their documents. They have access to school, to basic needs, to care. They play soccer, talk, a lot, and finally meet new people. Some projects - paused now by the corona crysis - allow them to get out from the center to go to other cities: sometimes in Rome, Palermo, Lampedusa, and even abroad.

We arrived more than two weeks ago to work on video creation. We were greeted by open arms and attentive ears. Graziana, who prepare the meal everyday for twenty people, gave us the instructions: « here you can take what you want, whenever you want ».

Then we were swept in the Girasoli wave. We've spent a lot of time with each other, talking, listening, laughing and feeling little by little welcomed in the family, we too. Our stay ended with alunch at the home of Cettina and Calogero, two very important founding members of Girasoli.

They told us: « In reality, Girasoli is like a ghetto. Young people have very few contact with the people of Mazzarino. So more people come from outside to propose anything, better it is ». As if to recreate a other small world within the real big one.

I Girasoli, directed by Safouane, Amine and Progetto Lambda