TORINO – Like towers of Babel on the contrary, erected towards the sky not to divide but to understand each other, the piles of food and clothing rise by the minute. On the right the things to eat, on the left those to cover and warm up. For 48 hours it has been an endless procession, in the silence of the square of the former arsenal, but here at the Sermig the only bomb is humanity that has exploded for almost forty years, it is the procession of Turin people who stop cars and vans, park , they open trunks and unload bags and boxes. A truck is already almost full: it will leave tomorrow or at the latest the day after tomorrow for Baia Mare, Romania, 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Then Father Albano will take care of it.
“Goodness is disarming” is written on the white wall over there, beyond the atrium which was uncovered by the bombings of 1942 and remained partly like this, also to warn that war is always but peace more. “The unexpected has been our growth, the unexpected is the most important thing in the world” says Ernesto Olivero, the man that Pope Wojtyla loved, author of this miraculous and simple place. Since 1999, a truck leaves for Romania every month, where Father Albano Allocco stows the donations in his five silos and distributes them to street children. Now, this new and absurd war has moved the boundaries.
“Our passion are people and the poor” says Rinaldo Canalis, who deals with logistics and shipping for Sermig. “Father Albano seemed to us the perfect person to get things to the Ukrainian refugees who already flock to Baia Mare, 14 thousand arrived on Saturday alone. The dormitory will host a small part, even here in Turin we are ready to receive them, if necessary” .
Ukraine, in Kherson among civilians crushed by the battle for the South: refugees under bombs
by our correspondent Giampaolo Visetti
There is an orderly line of people at the entrance, the Sermig is a huge space. They left some old machinery that was used to produce bombs, there is also a small cannon aimed at the sky, next to the goldfish tank. And it’s all a whirling of arms and hands, not just young people, on the contrary, to move and unload stuff. “The response from Turin shocked even us who are used to goodness” explains Rosanna Tabasso, who has been at Sermig for a long time. “We ask, if possible, not to bring clothes, we have more than enough of those, but long-life food, even powdered milk and diapers for babies and children. And then blankets. The refugees would need surgical materials, bandages, cotton. , syringes, IV poles, suture thread, this is what they are asking and we will do our best by contacting companies in the health sector “.
Almost everything is needed, and a great deal is coming. We need motorized energy generators to give light and heat where electricity no longer exists, we need heaters, strollers, wheelchairs for the disabled, crutches. We must imagine a wounded humanity to take care of, aching bodies, severely injured limbs, children shivering in the cold. The carts overflow, people carry their things, boxes full of “big shopping”, and then they even say thank you before saying goodbye and leaving. A couple of hours in here and even the darkest pessimism goes into crisis.
Today there will be a pacifist march with children and young people, the procession starts at 2 pm and arrives from the mayor Lo Russo. “Explaining a war to the little ones and overcoming their sadness is not a marginal task for us”, says Rosanna.
At the frontier, the gateway to Europe: “The Poles, our brothers, will defend us from Putin”
by our correspondent Corrado Zunino
Sermig is help to the poor, the homeless, the without food. “We have only 200 beds, we are always full but outside the door there is never anyone left. We are animated by a small and powerful thought: the world can change”. A warm sun falls from the windows, but inside you move in an anorak. We are near Porta Palazzo, it is the village of thirty-seven different nationalities and of the Dora stream which overflowed in 2000 and made a slaughterhouse: a line is drawn on the outer wall of the Arsenale, here the water arrived and no misfortune is unanswered. Try it you must. “But I feel the shame of being Russian”, says Ekaterina Dudulyak, volunteer cook at Sermig. “But I want to say clearly that the Russians are not Putin, far from it. He has only a delusion of omnipotence and we feel on the side of the Ukrainians, so weak. This war is the collective failure of my people. Me too, personally. , I feel I have not done enough for peace, starting with my heart and ending, perhaps, with my vote “. It is the same thought of another young Russian volunteer from Sermig, his name is Andrei and he says only one thing: “I feel ashamed”.