November 17, 2022

Becky & Bryan, at Lake Dobbiaco in Northern Italy

Greetings to each of you.  November is passing quickly, with so much work to do.  We also eagerly await the birth of our 28th grandchild, a girl to be named Ivy Faith, to Steve and Lindsay.  We are so happy for them, and will miss being there.  

The first part of November we met with two organizations in Milan who help with housing, job training, food, Italian instruction, and other needs for refugees.  Last week we traveled to Torino, San Remo, Ventimiglia, Torre Pellice and Oulx, meeting with a number of organizations who help refugees from many different countries. In Torino we met with an organization called Coloro Vivi, where refugees are trained to sew and make high end clothing, preparing them for employment that can provide a living for them and their families. Barbara Spezini, the founder, is a compassionate and truly giving person who has given her all to help refugees have a better life.

 

   Left: At Banco di Soliarietà di Como, for a project for fruits and vegetables, and hygiene kits for Ukrainians in the

   Como area.  Note their logo--5 loaves of bread & 2 fishes.  Right: Women at Colori Vivi in Torino, for job training

   in professional sewing.  Barbara Spezini, founder, is standing. The church purchased several professional 

   sewing machines and professional ironing boards, etc. for them. 

We were in Como in late October with a group called Banco di Solidarietà di Como Onlus.  This group serves Ukrainian refugees in the Como area.  Everyone who helps at Banco di Solidarietà are volunteers.  The founder of this organization told us his story and why he started feeding the refugees.  As a young man he had been asked to hold the Bible for the priest while he was reading from it.  The priest was reading the parable of the five loaves of bread and two fishes.  As he finished reading from the Bible, the priest said, "Go and do likewise."  The young man felt that the priest was speaking directly to him, and looking directly at him.  He explained to us that he decided from that moment that he would do what he could to help feed the needy.  He started with 2 other friends to help serve the poor and those in need.  He and his friends, plus many others now, are still performing that mandate given by the priest.  The last few years they have focused on helping refugees, and this past year, refugees from Ukraine.  We are thrilled to be able to help them in obtaining fresh fruits and vegetables for the Ukrainian refugees to supplement canned food, as well as hygiene kits for all, and diapers for the babies. 

 

Job Training in Catering, for refugees in Milan.  They are from many countries, from Ukraine to Africa.

Our visit to Ventimiglia last week was on the border with France.  We visited them at Caritas, at the border, and also under the bridge where the refugees generally sleep.  Many have no sleeping bags or blankets, no water, no food and no idea how long their plight will be.  We met a refugee named Salahadin, who had just arrived the day before.  He was from a small country in Africa, Eritrea, just north of Ethiopia.  This 36 yr. old man, the age of our son Paul, had attended a funeral for the previous ruler of his country, and was arrested by the army of the new leader, just for being there.  He was imprisoned for 7 months and then escaped, traveling along the Baltic route into Romania, where he stayed a short time.  But he saw so much drinking that he decided he did not want to settle or stay there, nor bring his wife and children to live amongst the alcohol and situations there.  So he continued to Italy, where we met him the day he arrived.  He told us he hoped to go to Belgium where his sister is living.  (Her husband is still in jail in Eritrea for being in that same funeral procession.)  The leaders from Diaconia Valdese informed him that if he continues to Belgium, they may not let him stay there.  Yet if he stays in Italy, it will take him at least 2-3 months to get approval and legal documents for asylum.  Salahadin asked where he can stay while he waits the 2 months, and they told him, "here, under the bridge."  He appeared totally devastated with that news.  They explained to him that Italy used to have alternative housing for refugees, but they don't now, unless you are a minor or a woman with children.  So, they continued, it will be a tough choice, that only he can make, of whether to proceed to Belgium, or stay in Italy.  We wished that we had a sleeping bag, and a hat and gloves for him to have as he stayed there under the bridge in the cold, while he decides what to do.  

 

Salahadin Yassin, refugee from Eritrea (just north of Ethiopia, under the bridge in Ventimiglia, with Simone, 

Adam, Becky, and Bryan.  Discussing some of  his options, after just arriving from Romania. Note him holding

and showing a tattered picture of his 2 children.

Salahadin showed us a tattered picture of his two little children, a son and a daughter.  His heart ached to see them again.  All he wants to do is provide a better life for them than what he has had.  He repeatedly said that he did not come to Europe for money, but for freedom, and so that his children did not have to live with terrorism and conditions like he has had to.  The leaders from Diaconia Valdese invited him to come to their agency and Caritas the next day where breakfast is given, and free counseling and legal help are offered.  It is not easy for refugees.  They have to depend on the help of others, especially in receiving necessary documents to live and to travel. Our prayers are with Salahadin and the almost countless others, as he and they seek a better life for themselves and for their families, if they can ever get together again.

 

Left: Under the bridge in Ventimiglia, with very challenging conditions.

Right: 2 migrants in Oulx, just arrived.  Man on the left has bad sores on the bottom of his foot.

On Friday of last week we then drove to Torre Pellice in the amazing Piedmont mountains, to meet with other leaders of Diaconia Valdese, including Loretta Malan.  You may recall that this is the same area that Lorenzo Snow, Joseph Torono, and T.B.H. Stenhouse served as missionaries for the church in 1849-1852.   Many people, Valdesians, joined the church there, then immigrated to Utah.  Think of the Malan's in North Ogden, Malan's Peak and many you may know in Ogden, Brigham City, Mantua (named after a city in Italy), and Logan, who came from the Piedmont Valley.  Diaconia Valdese helps refugees in this beautiful Piedmont Valley as well.  Oulx, even closer to the French Border, houses a church where refugees can sleep for a night and receive food and possible shoes, then cross into France, hoping to get to England, Belgium, Germany or other European countries.  We worked with an organization called MEDU, who helps the refugees with their many medical needs following their challenging travel from Afghanistan, Iran, Africa, and elsewhere.  Last week alone, a family had come to them with one of their members having polio.  Another young man had been running and tripped, hit his head, and lost his vision.  In the summer, refugees often have scabies or mycosis.  In the winter months like now, they often have frostbite or hypothermia.  Scabs and sores on their feet looked horrendous.  And we saw pictures of them trudging through the deep snow in these high mountain passes.  The volunteers told us that they do not have any shoes to give the men who are larger.  We hope to be able to donate at least 48 pair of larger shoes.  When the refugees get to their destination over the border in  France, they give them to a group there, who returns them to Oulx to dry, then give them to other refugees.  

Becky, at Mt. Nese, near our apartment in Alzano Lombardo, on Oct. 29, 2022

The small medical clinic is housed in a tiny "portable" with one small bed, a couple of medical items, a desk and three chairs.  MEDU has refugees helping to translate for the refugees.  One such helper, Ali, was from Iran.  He has been helping MEDU for 6 months and hopes to be able to move to America in 6 months to a year where his wife and child are living in Sacramento, California.  He said to us, "We'll be patriots when I get there!"  These refugees hope to have a life with freedom from oppression.  Today we submitted a project to hopefully have the church help MEDU assist the refugees with the vast medical needs of refugees at the border in Oulx.  

Bryan, in gardens on Isola Bella, on Lake Maggiore, north of Milan. Oct. 15, 2022

The work continues to move forward, and we are very grateful to be here and be part of this wonderful work.  We hope that we are able to help in some small way.  As Thanksgiving approaches, we are most grateful for our own family, each one of our seven children, and their families.  We have been blessed abundantly and are grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ which gives us direction not only in this life, but in the life to come.  

We send our love,

Bryan and Becky Gerritsen