My daughter Margherita has grown up watching me travelling back and forth from the most remote corners of the Earth. She would look me in the eyes while holding the umpteenth picture of me with a bunch of children from so far away, and she would say:
“Pa, you know what you should do? You should open an orphanage”.
In the year of grace 2022, when the endless years of the pandemic and my contract with the Catholic Church came to an end, it would have been the perfect time to seriously think about my future, instead, I felt it would be more important to think about the future of 60 orphan children from Madagascar.
After receiving the blessing from my three children, we all gifted a small group of nuns, ruled by sister Claudine, with a plot of land with 11 little houses, a well and a vegetable garden in the poorest region of the Isle, Fianarantsoa.
We also renovated those houses by furnishing and painting them with cheerful colours; after that, we gave them to a group of children, aged from zero to twelve.
Among these houses, one is destined to the volunteers who wish to travel to this place and explore both a part of Africa and a part of themselves.
I have organised a lot of fundraising campaigns to raise money to support good causes, and now I must come up with something good to support Dust and Soul.
“Dust and Soul” is how we called our brigade because, after an entire day spent among the poorest of the poor, dust and soul are what is left on your clothes.
And neither are easy to get rid of.
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AS OF APRIL 2024, DUST AND SOUL HAS BECOME A FOUNDATION: “TO PROTECT THE WEAKEST, FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE, BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN RICH AND POOR, STOP THE ARMS RACE, FIGHT ALL FORMS OF DISCRIMINATION, AND WATER THE TREE OF LOVE AND UNDERSTANDING”.
IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE: DUSTANDSOUL.ORG
Year
2022