Responding to the Challenge

Abstract We should say that in Italy the sea brings those in search of “hope.” Looking from this perspective, ”hope” for these people in Europe means starting from the concept of dignity, of having rights. It also means that you will meet people who accompany you in your journey, but that they will also leave you free to live your faith. How can you save lives and maybe send them back to the coast where they escaped violence? The decision to set up the socalled ‘hotspots’ (new centers for identification and expulsion), in some areas of southern Italy raises similar doubts. Everyone who arrives anmigrant in Europe has his or her own story. Whoever arrives in Europe by sea or on foot tries to tell it to us, because they hope that they can have a better future, as Mohamed told us in Torre Pellice. Diaconia Valdese and the Waldensian cultural center organized public meetings where the local population and some present-daymigrants are confronted with several stories. This is a means of developing knowledge tha...