6,000 kilometres far from Trento, we meet young people who wants to be protagonists of their future, of the humanity’s future, like us. We build together a bridge of friendship and solidarity, which joins us, our cities, Italy and Africa. It is a bridge to reach out and start changing the world together.

We would like that all the young people of the world have water, food, health and education and could realize themselves with dignity and rights.

We landed in Entebbe and with a bus we drove for 600 km to Koboko, the District most northern of Uganda, at the border with South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. During the trip there are many people walking to the edges of the road. Here the daily life is out of the house: the mother brushes her son’s teeth, some hairdressers make braids on the sidewalk, the kitchen is on open air. Along the way we met thousands of children walking with the school uniform, women with the water tank on their heads, groups of men who discuss in mango trees’ shadow. It is possible to feel the life unrest, it is transmitted by the continuous work of individuals who go on and back and bring,.. At the first stop children surround us and women try to sell us fruits, ciapati and meat. A pregnant 19-years-old girl asks to our girls why they aren’t already married and whether they have children. The young boys ask to Federico whether the Italian girls are free and they inform him about the price of an African wife in terms of goats and cows.

In Koboko we met the District Authorities, which welcomed us assuring the place security and expressing their happiness for our visit. Pierluigi Floretta, responsible of ACAV activities in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo, together with the animator Asega Mansur, accompanied us to visit some families committed in the forestation project, with which it had been possible to realize 200 wooded areas and 15 plant nursery worked by 15 cooperative groups. We saw the small mango plants, to which few years will be necessary in order to be productive, and plants as the grevillea robusta, drought resistant which will ensure a certain wood stockpile for the future.

In the afternoon we assisted to the drilling of a new well. The clean water gushes: eyes full of joy of the community that expresses the awareness that life will be a little bit easier from now, a little bit healthier . Time first spent collecting water could be used for other activities.

We are no longer able to separate from the kids that with their curiosity and immediacy win us and leave their smile in our heart.

Laura Bertagnolli, Federico Bombarda, Alessandra Clementi, Giulia Endrizzi, Elisa Gazzin, Irene Luce Parisi

See the next day..