30 Years of EdC

Building Bridges of Hope is the title of the AMU Balance Sheet for the year 2022, published at the end of June.

How was this year? AMU President Stefano Comazzi sums it up perfectly in the opening letter added to the beginning of the report: Serious and dark events have touched our lives, generating apprehensions and amplifying the uncertainties that have been with us for several years already (...) Immersed in the current epochal change that makes the future uncertain and mysterious, we are experiencing a challenge that is also a strong opportunity to rediscover the true and great values of life, those that guide our actions and make us the authors (often unconscious ones) of a future that can be better than any past (...)

And so, even in this troubled 2022, the life of the AMU has not stopped, on the contrary, it has continued with great momentum.

Great momentum, this is exactly the sentiment that animates all the actions undertaken by the AMU in the five continents – Central and Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia – to foster the complete development of every person, community and people and to achieve the highest degree of reciprocity between these protagonists.

 The context of reference in which the AMU moved internationally was marked by a date: 24 February 2022, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The consequences of this generated a new and very serious humanitarian crisis. In Italy, on the other hand, the creeping smear campaign against NGOs for their rescue actions at sea continued in 2022. But neither of them managed to stop the AMU from continuing with its commitment; both with feasibility studies for new projects, and with projects already underway.

The latter include:

• RestarT in Siria
  Here, after 11 years of war and emergency interventions, the AMU accompanied the start-up and development of the first 50 income-generating activities in the cities of Homs and Aleppo, which today provide work and income for 50 families.
• Water – source of life and development in Ruyigi, in Burundi
  ew extensions have been completed to the drinking water supply network serving two schools with 3,037 pupils. The construction of 40 ecological latrines was started and the population participated in training sessions on water management, hygiene and common goods.
• It’s possible! – Community Microcredit and Microfinance in Burundi
  Thanks to this project, during 2022 another two thousand people - in addition to the two thousand already active - had access to community microcredit groups to start jobs.
• A school for all, in Sierra Leone
  A project to give the possibility of attending school to about 1,500 adolescent boys and girls in a very isolated district of the country. Here, in fact, only one in six teenagers attends school and - also because of school drop-out - 30% of girls face pregnancy and early marriage, and 86% undergo the practice of female genital mutilation. But thanks to this project they will be able to study in a protected environment and grow in awareness of their rights.
• Building Brigdes, in Italy 
  The third cycle of the MSBH social and labour inclusion programme was completed, having involved 300 people coming from reception centres and communities; together with the extraordinary reception action for Afghan refugees launched in 2021.
• Furthermore, work was continued on accompanying small income-generating activities in Ecuador, Cuba and Mexico.
• At the same time, in Egypt and Pakistan, the AMU continued with basic education and peace education projects.
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  There were other humanitarian emergencies that saw AMU's presence in Syria, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan; another instant to be mentioned is the participation in the vaccination campaign in India, which ensured access to anti-Covid vaccination for 2,500 people who had been excluded previously.
• Finally, humanitarian emergencies. The main intervention in 2022 was the one in Ukraine, where, since the week after the Russian invasion, actions for reception have been made for about a thousand internally displaced persons. The renovation of a diocesan building to be used as a safe centre for mothers and children. And the organisation of a health service with three outpatient clinics and a mobile clinic in the province of Kyiv, to provide clinical examinations and medical care to about ten thousand people who no longer have access to it.

There were other humanitarian emergencies that saw AMU's presence in Syria, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan; another instant to be mentioned is the participation in the vaccination campaign in India, which ensured access to anti-Covid vaccination for 2,500 people who had been excluded previously.

Learn more by downloading the AMU Balance Sheet, (currently only available in Italian).