Dearest friends, collaborators, godparents, forgive the long silence during last period of time. Sorry for not giving you news. As in the rest of the world our difficulties during this year and a half seemed to never end.
First of all, the difficulty from the beginning of accessing the favelas to provide assistance to children when the social workers, due to the great risk of contagion, didn’t feel to go personally. Thanks to volunteers and police officers, however, we have always remained close to most of them and I can guarantee that there has never been a lack of food, neither to our children nor to their families.
Unfortunately, the distance of our children from our home for the elderly, which remained almost isolated for a long time, has led many of them to an aggravation of both their psychological and health state and some of them unfortunately passed away in this period.
Finally, after many legal battles, the “San Michele” managed to reopen its doors a few weeks ago in a Brazilian reality where most of the istitutions remained closed until today. Obviously we have reopened with safety measures like masks, alcohol and measures that are not always effective, especially with children. We had to cut the capacity of the classroom buses to carry out some of the activities, even though sports activities, for example, are still prohibited.
What makes our work even more difficult, in reality, is the prohibition to hug them, perhaps the most effective way to redeem, especially at this moment, the wounds that our little ones charge in life. I wanted to thank you on behalf of all the children for not having forgotten us of the “San Michele” mission in this dark moment also for Italy.
If we have been able to cope with this tragedy for so long we owe it to you to whom I would like to express all our recognition and affection. I thank you and I hug you from my heart. Many thanks.
