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Taking in families, in our case of asylum seekers, also means having to take care of children, and this is precisely the biggest, but also the most interesting challenge we face: the youngest children represent, in fact, the future of the nuclei we host and their great opportunity to improve their situation and build a very different tomorrow from what their lives have been so far. This is why one of the priorities of the John Paul II Foundation has always been the schooling of our children.

The results obtained are truly noteworthy: over the years, the work of the operators has enabled the creation of a fruitful collaboration with the Montevarchi and Fiesole schools in Tuscany that sees a constant dialogue between operators, teachers and educators. This year as many as 9 children will be enrolled in Montevarchi schools, while in Fiesole there will be 14. This is an important step for our families: the children, in fact, coming into contact with their peers, quickly learn the language and, especially the older ones, often become interpreters for their parents. In addition, the school allows the women taken in by us to have more time to be able to look for work and move around the area.

Also not to be overlooked is the fact that our nuclei have the opportunity to fit into the social group represented by the parents of their classmates, participating in end-of-school parties and other events central and customary to the life of an Italian family. Over the years we have celebrated many birthdays attended by many classmates, thus creating an intense and pleasant exchange with their families. But to fully understand the importance for our guests of the children's school insertion, we cannot but rely on the words of one very French-speaking mother who, one day, during a lesson of the internal Italian course, looked proudly at her son and said, "He will know three languages: French and Italian, but also English, because he will go to school!"