“With some friends of the Focolare of Bangkok – Luigi Butori, one of the protagonists of the event shared – we have for some time now been bringing concrete help to some families of refugees from Myanmar belonging to the Karen ethnic group, who have settled in the north of Thailand. We shared this experience with some of our Italian friends who were helping us from afar and to who we would periodically send some updates and pictures.

In particular, after the visit of one of us in Italy in October 2013, a special relationship was created with the children of the kindergarten of I.C.G.Giuliano in Latina, who immediately showed a great desire to do something for their peers who were so far away, but who they now felt to be close to them.

Their help was directed in particular to an orphanage in Mae Sot, in the northern part of Thailand.

It was truly a touching experience for us to reach this place knowing that we were the messengers of children who were 10 thousand kilometers away, who did all they could to be able to send their humble help.

The faces of the children brightened up while they were opening the big boxes, and we also added some chocolates, milk and other good things, fruit of the sharing of our Buddhist, Christian and Muslim  friends. It was a celebration for the children to see the toys: mini-motorcycles, fireturcks and small gadgets that we ourselves didn’t know how to use: the “Karen” children, in a matter of seconds, were already experts! We were able to distribute help also to other children in the refugee camp and in other “villages” (in reality, they are just huts grouped together near a factory, or maybe in the rice fields).

Yes the gifts are important but each time we experience that it is more important to look at the person in the eyes, to extend our hand, “to touch the other”, to make him or her feel that we are there for them. In the beginning, they were very suspicious; but then, gradually their faces lit up with joy, with hope and – even if we didn’t understand their language – it seemd as if they told us: “Thank you, today you made me happy… All these things are given free of charge? When will you come back?”. “Look I am here for you and I live for you… Don’t be afraid”.

This experience has gone ahead also this year and once more the customs office of Thailand did not ask us to pay any fees, as they admired the original and funny designs that the little ones of Latina put on the 30 big boxes that they sent.

We brought these things among the ricefields and canals of Mae Sot, where those without documents strive to survive as much as they can.

But we were also touched by how this experience is changing the life of the families of the children of Latina. A fatehr said: “The life of our children and also our life has changed from the moment we started to do something for the Karen people, whom we never knew existed before”. And a mother: “Thank you for having given us this chance to do something for the others; many of us have always wanted to do something concrete, but we didn’t know what and how. The television gives us  a lot of bad news, instead this is a breath of joy and of hope”. Then a teacher: “The children are electrified by the idea that their toys arrived to the other part of the world by travelling on a big ship to reach children who have nothing. A little girl couldn’t contan herself when she saw her doll in the arms of a child in the orphanage of Mae Sot”.

The eyes never lie and those of the parents are sincere. We will continue to work so that this dream, this miracle of love that unites Latina and a forsaken place, in the midst of the mountains, in the northeast of Thailand, can still continue”.