“AND all born by chance. Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, a girl, Anastasia, called me to ask for help. From there a very strong wave of solidarity started, which almost overwhelmed us. Everyone wants to lend a hand, we try to do what we can ». Cristina Cappelletti is one of the three founders of Maisha Marefu, a non-profit organization founded in 2009 thanks to three female doctors from Arese. (besides her there are Agnese Robustellini and Rossella Ventricelli) in love with Africa, which gradually involved an increasing number of women. A non-partisan and non-denominational association, where every euro obtained from fundraising goes directly to the recipients, also because all mission and organizational expenses are borne by the volunteers. In recent years Maisha Marefu has worked in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burkina Faso, to build first aid centers, furnish schools, bring food aid, support missions, buy school books. Until the war in Ukraine came, she reset everything.
A Maisha Marefu pickup truck leaving for the Ukrainian border.
“Immediately after the invasion, a Ukrainian girl living in Senago called me, Anastasia, who was setting up a network of relatives in her country. From there the chain of solidarity started: we collect food and medicines and take them with vans to the border with Poland, Slovakia, Romania. We arrive with what they ask of us, we bring nothing at random. Now, for example, no clothes are needed. At every border there are contacts: in Poland Maisha Marefu is in contact with the Onlus Bon Charity, in the other borders the network is informal, created on the wave of the emergency. “Everything that comes to us we box in my garden, and we label it in Italian, English and Cyrillic.. We are overwhelmed by phone calls from volunteers who want to leave, some companies offer us cars and fuel ».
A group of Maisha Marefu volunteers.
For a small non-profit organization it was not easy to organize trips and obtain permits, but in a few days the first expedition started, and others followed. Food and medicine are left at the border, and Ukrainian mothers and children are loaded. Here too, with a thousand attentions. “Only people who have contacts, who know where to go and claim to be transported for free, can enter Italy autonomously. But it is not very simple », continues Cristina Cappelletti,« because for example Ukrainian children do not have a photo in their passport and we had to take them ourselves. We take them to their destination or, if far away, we load them on a train. Trenitalia offers them the ticket. We have let in over 120. We cannot do more than this ». After a few weeks of experience, the organizational balance is positive: «I have never seen such widespread and well-made food distribution. Red Cross and Civil Protection have done very well, even if the associations have moved earlier“.
The next trips are on Friday 8 to the Przemysl collection center, on the border between Poland and Ukraine, and Friday 15 to Vysne Nemecke, between Slovakia and Ukraine (info on maishamarefu.org). We need medicines like painkillers, antibiotics, medication set. The list is constantly updated, check the site.
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