CAPs Friday 20/3/09

Friday, 20 March 2009 | posted by Matt_BC
Activism, CAPs (Community Action Programmes), Education, Guildford 2009

After a short absence, the CAPs Fridays are back - this time with an Italian CAP, by our very own Chiara!

COOPERA(C)TION:PEACE AND LAW

To some, the CAP abbrevation recalls to the memory a very fashion item. But to us, Global Changemakers, it stands for Community Action Project. A spontaneous questions may arise:why should a Global Changemaker be active and heavily involved in her/his community?

Each one of us has a personal answer.I can find the answer in myself. This answer is a gift from God. I got it after 18 years of life and several years of voluntary work in my community: a Changemaker can be defined as a person who makes a real change starting from her/his community.

A Changemaker is a person who challenges the past,the present and the future.

The Changemaker is a soldier of peace,is the architect of the basis of the society, is a drop in the ocean, is a person who goes beyond the difficulties,is a young person who dares to share,is a person to be admired because BRAVE.
 
A Changemaker is an enterprising young person who is a role model to adults and youngsters.

A Changemaker is an active citizen of a town called WORLD.

Impetuousness, incessant movement and passion fill her/his work and change other people’s lives with simplicity and a genuine approach to life.

A Changemaker starts from the ground to achieve something bigger, to help more and more people.

A Changemaker is a forward looking person with feet on the ground. Is an OPS:Objective, passionate and self-confident.

A Changemaker is able to change the destiny of her/his community, a Changemaker is able to start from the Community to achieve, with the help of like-minded fellows, a GLOBAL LEVEL.

A Changemaker is aware of her/his potential and is able to accept the failures and to deal with difficult situations; but she/he knows that her/his passion is needed, when nobody cares.

A Changemaker is daily fighting against mistrustness, apathy, ignorance. AND KEEPS ON FIGHTING.

A Changemaker defines herself/himself as a young person who cares about the future. And she/he knows that FUTURE IS NOW.

A Changemaker is a young decision-maker.

For all these reasons,a Changemaker is massively involved in her/his community. We young and lucky people selected by the British Council got the opportunity to be financially supported with some grants to start our projects in the community. The most important thing, I guess, as it’s very hard to get money in order to develop your community project. Too many times i’ve heard people saying “Wow,you are a brilliant young person. No,no really,i love your project but i cannot help you.”

Most of you already know me, but to those who don’t, well, my name is Chiara and I’m 18.I’m Italian and I’m massively involved at the European level as ambassador for several projects in the EU and i was the Italian representative in the Guildford Forum 2009. The last day of the forum, all the 58 Changemakers were supposed to present to the ‘family’ their own project.

The Community Action Project is a project ‘calibrated’ on each national reality, meaning that the projects vary from one country to another. We young amazing people are dealing with common global issue. Some of us are working on HIV, some others on women’s rights and so on. All our projects are different and amazing on the same level. This is undeniable.

As introducted in Guildford in January, my project is quite different. As my community is heavily affected by the Mafia, I thought that working against it would have been the best thing to do.

My project is called COOPERA(C)TION:PEACE AND LAW. A very smart gimmick. I will briefly explain the meaning of the title. My project is aimed to the cooperation among people. The cooperation has to be an ‘active’ action and not a passive one. Cooperation involves peace and law, respect and mutual support.

So,here we go: my initial project was to open an assisting centre in Bari vecchia, but due to several technical problems with NGOs, the mother church I asked help to and last but not least money, I changed my initial project.

Today my CAP is approved and i’m working on it day by day.

What is about? I found a preexisting centre that the Nuns of the “Annibale di Francia Institute” kindly gave us for my project. In this centre we work with 30 kids who belong to poor backgrounds and people who were grant custody to the nuns because their parents are in prison due to mafia. These young people have lots of psychological problems, because their family didn’t give them the serenity they needed. In this centre we work for 3 hours per week, on Monday, Thursday and Sunday from 17.00 till 18.00.

Me and my team are working on a show with the kids: in this show in all the kids are performing a play which shows how legality is needed in everyday life. Each one of the kids is amazed by the project and they see that as a breakaway from their sad condition, they are so happy and they need to be creative (as probably life didn’t give this opportunity to them so far).

Mine is not a big or ambitious project for sure, but is changing things in my life and even better, in the lives of these kids. It’s very difficult to describe the light in their eyes and their happiness while being at the centre of attention,knowing that their voices are heard, for once.

It’s been difficult to deal with them for the first times but now (March) we are working happily all together. I didn’t expect such a huge success. The project is now a mix of kids, old people from Anteas (the association which is helping me), the scout movements and even some immigrants here in Bari.

I’m definitely happy about what i’ve done and I’m quite sad about the end in June of this project, due to my final exam and uni applications.

What I want to share with you are some very simple but fundamental things:this project really strenghtened me: with my passion for my community i achieved what adults haven’t in such a long time. This project made me believe that it doesn’t matter what you are doing and how much you will have to fight for that. The important thing is to always keep in mind WHO YOU ARE and what’s you potential. Nobody can stop you once you know what’s your target.

Last but not least, keep on smiling and working hard. The best things are difficult to achieve, but once you proved the world you are strong enough to do that, well, you’ll achieve a huge success.

Having such a strong network behind me and having known so many amazing people who really became my family really changed my life and made me believing that I could realize this project.

GLOBAL CHANGEMAKERS:
Development addicted!

Chiara