♦ February 27, 2025 - "Mask up!"
"Mask up!"
At Carnival as a gift for refugee and welcomed children
by the John Paul II Foundation a theater-therapy course
to be shared with local elders
A special gift is coming for Carnival: being able to wear a mask and put yourself in the other person's shoes. It is the new fundraising campaign launched by the John Paul II Foundation to support integration projects for refugee children housed in its facilities in Tuscany.
Many children between the ages of 3 and 16, including some Italian children from the area, are taking a theater course: for them it represents a tool for integration, socialization, fun and also growth and knowledge of their own emotions. In one of the rooms of Villa Pettini, the facility in the Valdarno that takes in refugee families, a theater teacher from theMasaccio Cultural Association along with John Paul II Foundation worker and psychologist Valentina Billi, the children guests of the facilities along with some of their peers from the area are meeting, playing, learning. They are setting up a show that will have an exceptional stage in March: they will perform in front of the guests of Rsa Masaccio in San Giovanni Valdarno. In this way, in addition to proving themselves and deserving the applause of the audience, they will in turn give smiles and fun, in the special union of distant generations united together by the art of theater.
The theater-therapy workshop is achieving great success among the children and young people who get to participate in it, as are the other initiatives for integration into the host community such as school placement, after-school programs, Italian language courses, and entertainment activities also open to the Valdarno public.
For Carnival, the John Paul II Foundation invites everyone to put themselves in the shoes of these refugee children, who have left "their world" to a new hope and only wish for a different and better future. In this, too, continuing the theater project means continuing to give voice to those who are often not heard.
Contributing to the John Paul II Foundation's projects for refugees in the land of Tuscany means donating joy and solidarity: because every child has a right to a stage where they can express their story, and every community deserves to hear it.
To support the project: www.fondazionegiovannipaolo.org
Florence, February 27, 2025
John Paul II Foundation Press Office:
Manuela Plastina - journalist
comunicazione@fondazionegiovannipaolo.org