At Christmas Sant’Egidio remains at the side of the “new poor” for the pandemic

Cinecittà. Giulia is in line, like so many other people. He is waiting to receive the food package in front of the distribution center of the Community of Sant’Egidio, an open door in a city where everything is closed. It was the pandemic that brought Giulia to the friends of the community she had met years earlier, as a child. She now has a 7-year-old daughter, Noemi and she also attends there School of Peace, the free after-school service that Sant’Egidio has opened in various Roman suburbs. Together with Giulia, dozens of people wait to receive what they once had no difficulty in obtaining: food and products for personal hygiene.

They are unskilled workers and shop assistants, hairdressers and maids, street vendors and artisans. Those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic and those who got by with precarious work and who now do not even have the right to social safety nets. “I’ve never asked anyone for anything, but now if I didn’t come here once a week, I just don’t know what to do. I’ve always worked as a waitress in bars and restaurants, but only once did they get me the contract. To make up for it, I did the cleaning by the hour, now it’s hard to find that too. A family, where I worked, with the lockdown, told me that I could no longer go ».

Christmas will also come for Giulia and Noemi, despite everything. Despite the pandemic. There will be Sant’Egidio at their side. “Today more than ever, given the situation of strong fragility and uncertainty, it is essential not to leave anyone alone “, explains the spokesman of the community of Sant’Egidio Roberto Zuccolini. «The traditional“ lunch with the poor ”that we have been carrying out for years in Italy and around the world will take place in a new way, to comply with the provisions envisaged for the Covid-19 emergency. There will be no tables and hugs, but not the gift and warmth of Christmas, this year even more felt. It will be a great opportunity to give courage and hope to those who have been hit hard by the economic and social crisis».

Since last March the Community has created over 50 new food distribution centers in Italy and in its canteens it has managed to offer more than six thousand meals a week, in compliance with the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. At Christmas 2019 alone, over sixty thousand people in difficulty who had lunch with Sant’Egidio, throughout the country.

“This year we want to do more by offering, in a festive atmosphere that will respect the health measures in force, meals and gifts in many places, throughout Italy and around the world, from 25 December until the entire holiday period ». Since the beginning of the Covid emergency, Sant’Egidio kept the soup kitchens operational and increased the “itinerant meals” for people living on the street, along with useful products to protect themselves from contagion such as masks and sanitizing gels.

Next to Giulia there is Morena, 65 years old and a great passion: crochet. “I love it. My friends used to bring me cotton and I made them for free. Now I have to get paid ». Morena is a “new poor”, one of the tragedies that the pandemic has aggravated. “I used to have a toy shop but now we’re closed. We used to tighten the belt until the end of the month but we always did it. With the lockdown we gave up. The aid allocated by the government was not enough to pay the rent of the shop, which was obviously closed in the meantime. To pay off our debts, we had to sell a house. Now we live with our son, but officially we are homeless. I have two children: the older one is 33 years old, she works as a shop assistant but in black; the little one is 25 years old, he worked in a tattoo parlor but unfortunately he had an accident and now he can’t work anymore ».

Among the many initiatives, the new edition of “Where to eat, sleep, wash”, a kind of Michelin guide for the poor, especially for the homeless. The guide is dedicated to Modesta Valenti, who lived at Termini station and died without help, in the winter of 1983, because the ambulance staff, considering her dirty, refused to assist her. In its pages, every year, the Community of Sant’Egidio indicates the addresses of all the structures linked to the world of voluntary work and institutions, to which those who live on the street can turn. There appear the canteens where you can eat, the places where meals are distributed in the street, the reception centers where you can sleep, wash and heal, the listening centers for obtaining psychological support or looking for a job. All free services to help those in need.