This story is not an Instagram stories. /eng

This story is not an Instagram stories.

Stefano Maria Palombi

This story is not an Instagram stories.

My daughter Margherita has grown up watching me travelling back and forth from the most remote corners of the Earth. She would look me in the eyes while holding the umpteenth picture of me with a bunch of children from so far away, and she would say:

“Pa, you know what you should do? You should open an orphanage”.

In the year of grace 2022, when the endless years of the pandemic and my contract with the Catholic Church came to an end, it would have been the perfect time to seriously think about my future, instead, I felt it would be more important to think about the future of 80 orphan children from Madagascar.

After receiving the blessing from my three children, we all gifted a small group of nuns, ruled by sister Claudine, with a plot of land with 11 little houses, a well and a vegetable garden in the poorest region of the Isle, Fianarantsoa.

We also renovated those houses by furnishing and painting them with cheerful colours; after that, we gave them to a group of children, aged from zero to twelve.

Among these houses, one is destined to the volunteers who wish to travel to this place and explore both a part of Africa and a part of themselves.

I worked on a lot of campaigns aimed at raising funds for several good causes, and now I must come up with something new to support Izahay Dia!

I hope that someone, from up above, puts some new ideas in my pocket.

This story is not

an Instagram stories.

Madagascar, outskirts of Fianarantsoa, the third biggest city Here, drought, the pandemic, and the consequences of the

For present

city in the country. the war in Ukraine are making people’s life miserable.

reference.

I’m not a

Children, even little ones, end up living in the streets or enslaved. Left to their fate.

enslaved.

fake news.

A 7-year-old girl

A great number of orphaned girls are sexually abused and

exploited.

shouldn't feel old.

We worked day and night, cruising through the streets, the were being exploited or abused.

Every time we find different stories, different faces, different

We have managed to rescue more than seventy children.

Save

the villages, the plantations and all those places where we knew people diﬀerent names.

as.

Home

A house. This was our ﬁrst idea: a shelter for the little ones, We ended up building 11. A small village with a big refectory, and a cat.

page.

ones, the fragile, and the lonely.

refectory, a bakery, two wells, a vegetable garden, a small chicken farm

Aina, 5 years,

Before coming to our village, many children had never slept Almost every one of them arrived without a single pair of

1st bed.

slept in a bed or eaten sitting around a table. shoes or having received a single caress in their lives.

Face.

Up until now, we have welcomed 82 children: the youngest and study. They’re happy.

The village administration is in the hands of 8 nuns of a small who is charge of the vegetable garden.

Book.

youngest is a few weeks old and the oldest is 13 years old. They live, play small order and 12 girls. There are also a guardian and a gardener,

The storm

Here with us, are also 6 young mothers, victims of sexual and but they also take care of all others like they were their own.

is over.

and domestic abuse. Not only do they look after their own children, own. Even the children help one another, like brothers and sisters.

are!

This is the name of our village. It is the silent cry of these children. You used to see it in their scared eyes, and now you see it We

children. in their happy smiles.

Izahay Dia!

We’ll be waiting for you

A small house in the village is reserved for the volunteers who and for the donors who want to see for themselves what their

who want to explore a bit of Africa and of themselves, their generosity achieves.

right

here.

This is just the beginning.

Now that the village is complete, we have to be able to run vegetable gardens for those who can’t feed their children, a refectory open to all the children we have not being able

We

keep dreaming.

run it day by day. We want to continue imagining projects.: common microcredit to help women who are alone start their own business, able to welcome, and a music and acting school.

Together we can continue to blow dark clouds away from their You can do it by donating or by contacting us in order to take Our shipments contain necessity goods, backpacks to go to musical instruments, medicines, bicycles.

Be

like

their sky. Help us keep this village alive and growing. take part in the fundraising we organise every three months. to school, toothbrushes, football uniforms, clothes, shoes, toys, diapers, like the wind.

It is important that those who help us through our fundraising going to reach their destination. If you want to help us: dustandsoul.org It is important that those who help us through our fundraising know that every single euro and every single good are indeed going to reach their destination If you want to help us: dustandsoul org It is that

fundraising know that every single euro and every single good are indeed