Is there a “different” kind of diplomacy—one that looks to welcoming, supporting, and helping those who are relegated to the existential peripheries so often denounced by Pope Francis. Gioia —an acronym standing for Youth, commitment, employment, inclusion, hospitality —is the social project conceived and implemented by the Embassy of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta to the Holy See, thanks to the commitment of Ambassador Antonio Zanardi Landi and his wife Sabina.
Thanks to their vision and dedication, a Center for young adults with disabilities has been established at Via Ostiense 103, in the heart of Rome. “The program we have developed has several objectives,” Antonio Zanardi Landi said on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony held last night, November 25. “The first is to support families with children who have special needs and help them manage the path toward independence for these young people, who will be guests of the Center. Here they will be welcomed during the day and will be able to receive long-term vocational training.”
The four residential units used to create the Center for young adults with disabilities were made available free of charge by the Grand Priory of the Order of Malta, and thanks to generous donations they were renovated according to criteria that reflect every housing need of people with disabilities. “Part of the renovated apartments,” explains Sabina Zanardi Landi, “is dedicated to the training of the twelve young people included in the project. Two of the apartments, instead, are intended to become a holiday home to welcome families with disabled members who will come to Rome also for the Jubilee.”
The young people participating in the project will therefore be the ones hosting guests who share their same difficulties, and the training program (entrusted to the Diversa Arte cooperative) will focus precisely on management and hospitality skills. Rosa Maria Bianco, president of the cooperative, has no doubts: “This is an important opportunity for the young people involved, because it involves both personal and professional growth, and it is in some way a double challenge for them, since there is also the chance to experiment. It is not an easy step for them or for their families.”
The path toward independence proposed by the Gioia project has been welcomed with great hope by the families of the young people involved. “For me and my son Marco, a glimmer of serenity is opening up,” explains Antonella Cossu, a retiree. “We have tried in many directions to find a placement for Marco, with countless difficulties. Not everyone can imagine what the question ‘What will become of them after we are gone?’ means for the parents of these young people. There are many young people who have difficulties like Marco’s but also great potential. Here they will have the opportunity to express it.”
At the inauguration of the new Center, all the local neighborhood organizations were present. “We very much hope that those who live here will look kindly upon these young people,” Ambassador Zanardi Landi emphasized, “and that they will show them this kindness simply with a smile, a pat on the back when they meet them on the stairs.”
Welcoming this new reality was the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Fra’ John Timothy Dunlap, who wished the young people “to discover the joy of working together on a shared project,” and expressed to the parents his hope that they may feel “supported and sustained in the search for a serene future for your children.”
This wish was echoed by Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda, patron of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, who—before blessing the premises made available by the Priory—expressed his personal appreciation for the initiative, calling it “a work that, on the eve of the Jubilee, becomes an unmistakable sign.” Above all, a sign of peace, “but also a sign of solidarity,” the cardinal emphasized, “of friendship and mutual hospitality, because this is the fundamental value that one wishes to convey.”