The mayor of Venice: “We opened our house to two Ukrainian families”

Her young children are learning to share games. At the table they talk to google translator and on Sundays they go to mass together. It may not have come out of the Heart Book but it is still a good story. The story of a humanitarian emergency, a phone call, and an open door. The story of a Venetian family that welcomes two mothers and three children fleeing fromUkraine. Then this is the family of Luigi Brugnaromayor of Venice and his partner Stefania does not move the weights that much.

“At first I was a bit embarrassed”, confesses Brugnaro, “They arrived exhausted, the four-year-old was crying in despair, there was no way to calm him down. Then, thanks to a provisional English and the help of my collaborators, of Ukrainian origin, we began to understand each other ».

The decision came on impulse during a phone call. “Earlier last week he called a friend and asked if they could find a place for two families on the run. Two mothers and three children. I phoned Stefania and she didn’t even let me finish talking. We have decided to welcome them to our home. And it is a very strong human experience ».

The women fled the center of the country by car, faced an interminable journey and back home they left a 19-year-old son who was enlisted. “My little children were in Tuscany when the families arrived. At first they asked me immediately if the new guests had touched the Playstation, then it was they who invited them to play ».

It starts like this: from a smile, from a barbecue. “I wanted to cook on Sunday. At first they were wary because they had never eaten fish. But they asked for an encore ». At the table we try not to talk about war. “Women are in contact with families through mobile phones, they follow the war step by step, for them it is very hard ».

The Brugnaro family tried to start organizing the days for the guests. «Stefania and our Ukrainian collaborators moved immediately for the vaccinations, for the purchase of underwear and clothes first goods of necessity and to buy a ride-on mower for the four-year-old. He wanted it blue: playing in the courtyard now helps him to recover some normality ».

The next front will now be school placement. «We want to work for this: it is not known when and how this war will end, children and young people must immediately seek sharing. We must always think that they are not economic migrants, they are refugees, people like us, whose homes were bombed one day and their lives interrupted ». We will need cultural mediators, psychologists. And the mayor Brugnaro on this is more than determined to play the part of him. “We, the first citizens, are the fundamental hub for services”. The Brugnaro dad loves meeting at the table. All together. Thus, while eating meat and salad, while passing oil and potatoes, they try to make this escape less inhumane. “I speak for myself, it is an incredible human experience, whoever has the opportunity to do so because the joy that gives being able to be of help to families who find themselves living a tragedy is truly enormous”.

Source: Vanity Fair

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