MAriagabriella De Giacomi, Milli, was born in Milan in 1964, on Fat Thursday. After graduating in Literature she became a psychomotor therapist. With the’Africa Today Association it arrived in Brazil in 1994. In 2003 he was born Espaço Progressirwhich was followed by the association Progressir Onlus, of which she is vice president, created by relatives and friends to support her commitment. Espaço Progressir welcomes young people, starting from those involved in drug taking and dealing, and families. Animated by the desire to “live to die leaving a better world”, according to the scout rule, Mariagabriella De Giacomi dreams of opening an elementary school. She lives in Nova Iguaçu (Rio de Janeiro).
5.30 am
«Breakfast and three coffees, to wake me up. Every morning I dedicate half an hour to prayer which gives me energy. Then I reach Miguel Couto, a very poor neighborhood of Nova Iguaçu, where
our center is located. Around Rio de Janeiro there are 13 cities with very large favelas, where poverty, violence and drugs are widespread at all levels.”
A bird’s-eye view of Nova Iguaçu in the Rio de Janeiro metropolitan region (Getty Images).
7.30 am
«Arrival at Espaço Progredir. We give breakfast with milk to children who are all very deficient in calcium. We recite an Our Father, take roll call and begin the activities. Let’s follow approximately
200 children and adolescents, who alternate morning and afternoon, depending on the shifts at school. Among the many initiatives, capoeira courses, theater workshops, English, drawing and music courses, sports, scholastic support and even poetry competitions. As well as psychological therapy spaces. We try to redeem their young lives and take them away from drug trafficking”
Mariagabriella in a moment of celebration at Espaço Progredir.
10 am
«Let’s have a snack. The Food Bank helps us with donations of fruit, vegetables, beets and yam, a tuber that is excellent for physical strength. The secretariat of the Municipality of Nova Iguaçu also makes a contribution, based on the Zero Hunger Food Program, established by President Lula da Silva.
We help families by adding sugar, rice, flour, beans and oil to their expenses. Poverty has increased a lot after Covid.”
“Dreams that smile” is the story of Espaço Progredir, a social reality a few kilometers from Rio de Janeiro, born from the commitment and determination of Milli De Giacomi and other people who shared his vision.
11.30 am
«The kids go home. I meet with the volunteers present to take stock of the situation, so we have an early lunch.”
1pm
«The kids from the afternoon shift arrive, who have already eaten at school (those who go there, otherwise they are fasting). We welcome them with a hug before the activities.
The project also helps us develop themor Roberto’s journeyan initiative born from the will of Rino Polato, after the killing in 2016 of his cousin Roberto Bardella in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, while they were on a motorbike trip together.
At 3pm we serve a snack: vegetable soup with meat or polenta and frankfurters. You cannot think of stimulating a change in your life without adequate nutrition. Visiting our children’s homes we discovered that 90 percent of them slept on the floor and so we launched the A bed for every child campaign, which we repeat every year.”
6pm
«A caretaker remains in the structure with his family, who lives in a nearby two-room apartment and we return home. I live as a guest of our president Nilza Dutra, known as Nunzia, and with the dog Zen. If there are no visits from friends, I spend the evening reading novels, such as Seven Sisters, by Lucinda Riley,
or watch some TV. I need to distract myself from such a harsh reality.”
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