The start was not easy, as it happens with all initiatives peeping into an area that we have not outlined yet. Today, after eleven years, the “Baby Space”, the service of the nursery created on the 2000 Jubilee by the Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa for foreign minors, represents a successful occasion of dialogue with persons of different religious confessions, such as Muslims and Buddhists.  The universally known Sisters of Maria Bambina offer it. 

The Institute of the Sisters of Charity, founded in Lovere in 1832, today is present in many parts of the world, answering the multiple needs of men of every epoch. It does it through works of mercy concretised in pastoral initiatives for the youths, for education and for solidarity with the poorest. Out of the concrete expressions of this charity, there is the “Baby Space”, which Sr. Stefania Marelli manages in the Roman quarter of Vigna Clara, with the precious support of eleven sisters from her community and the contribution of a voluntary woman. The distinctive sign of the nursery is that of appreciating the cultural diversities in the daily commitment to confrontation. Today, the nursery hosts nine children, from eighteen months to three years of age, of different nationalities. Here is the experience of the “Baby Space” in the words of Sr. Stefania.

Where do thee children come from?

“Their origins are very much disparate. There are children from Philippines, from Sri Lanka and Cape Verde; there have been also Peruvian, Moroccan, Portuguese and Ecuadorean children, as well as some children from Cameroon. A Romanian mother also appealed to us for her children, but they never came.  

The analysis of needs in the territory –with Embassies and foreign personnel- suggested the choice of welcoming only foreign children. Actually only a few children resided in the quarter, all the others came from zones and quarters distant from our community, one of them from Campagnano”.

Are they persons often compelled to leave their own land in search of fortune and better conditions of life? 

I do not know how to answer this question; some of them have spoken to me of this reality, but I cannot generalise, I do not know if it is true of every one.

How did they come to know of your service?

“At first we contacted Caritas and parishes, but later the ordinary information system functioned very well. I usually ask the newcomers how they happened to know us and every time their answer pleasantly impressed me, because all those who knock at our door say that they received our name from friends who had already sent their children to us. 

This tam-tam works. During the past ten years, I never received a negative feedback. There have been Muslim and Buddhist children without any problem. Religion has never been discrimination among us. I never ask the families about the religion they belong to. With the passing of time and after establishing a relation, they grow in openness and we may come to know their religious creed. We sometimes happened to be acquainted with Buddhist persons who go to the Scala Santa on Fridays or attend some parish church in which they feel at home. Another person openly told me to be Muslim and to have chosen our Space because the Sisters know how to educate children”.  

It does not happen daily to hear a similar testimony…..

“I cannot deny that all this gives us pleasure, and what surprises me is that reciprocal trust grows along our journeying together.  

For instance, I kept my contact with the mentioned Muslim family for a long time, up to four years ago, when I made a beautiful experience with our grown up ex-children. Even others remember us and phone to us, for instance, on Christmas festivals or by meeting them on our way. Sometimes we do not recognise them straightaway, because time changes also our physiognomy; however we soon restore our warm dialogue, exchanging our experiences outside the “Baby Space”.

Every year, for the arrival of Santa Claus, on Christmas day, we contact the children who had left the Space in the month of June.

If some other children inform us that they would come to see us, I ask the parents whether they are fully integrated in the nursery school, if not, I ask them to wait for Christmas, so that  they may not delay their integration.

This year we celebrated the feast on December 23 and the parents arrived at midday. We spent a time together and then Santa Claus arrived with his gifts. We played with him, spent a beautiful time together, finishing with reciprocal greetings. 

In the month of June, to celebrate the end of the year, we call them again and they come unfailingly, with the exception of those who have left Rome with their families.

Several of them come back to meet us; some of them almost constantly.

Does this facilitate also your relations with the families?

“Usually I ask the families about the integration of their children in society and whether there have been problems. Almost all of them reply that they never found any difficulty. I always tell the parents that they will not meet difficulties if they live serenely the first days of being far from their children. Of course, we cannot say that everything is easy, because it is the matter of changing habits, environment, faces and life.

I remember a mother who, last year, was very much worried for her daughter. I assured her that, according to my experience, the child would overcome that moment of change without big problems. She came to greet us in August and told us that the child had greeted them without any difficulty on the first day of school.  Of course, we cannot expect that the child does not cry when its parents go away: it is normal, but if the child has already experienced a detachment serenely, he will do it again. 

To me, this means to take care of life within each one, with simplicity, with the possibility at our disposal. This requires our going closer to those children and parents who are here often alone, without any kind of support. Often I happened to listen to problems of persons facing difficulties in a foreign land and I tried to give a counsel the way I could. I then realised that they need somebody ready to listen to them, so that they may not feel alone with their problems. Even when they have friends, they prefer to open their heart to those who take care of their children daily. Their trust becomes a responsibility that I try not to disregard. 

I remember a child who was in the “Baby Space”; after some years, he was reading in the primary classes when he came to see me. Its mother told me that she did not know how to stop her child from using the “biberon” to drink milk. I tried to speak with the child, requesting him to ask me a beautiful gift: a new milk cup just as he liked, with the commitment of using it. After a time, its mother joyfully informed me that the child had easily passed from the biberon to the cup, without any difficulty, in a very natural way.

To me, the most beautiful thing that we have realised with the “Baby Space” is a going close to others.  The most beautiful thing is to make our brothers and sisters feel, with simple gestures, that we are there and that if they have problems, we are at their disposal. We can offer our helping hand from the simplest thing, such as giving some cream to a young mother for her chapped hands, to a more committed one, such as bronchitis that seems to be never-ending.

There are persons whom we meet on the Christmas season, or through a phone call, asking them to meet us just for a greeting and a friendly exchange of experiences.

Sometimes we offer a helping hand in welcoming children on feast days, when the Space is closed, and we do it to meet particular demands linked with the work of their parents. This is a way of offering concrete help.

Our service is free, they have not to pay any fees; we ask some free contribution according to possibilities, just a tiny offering; we ask the parents to bring the lunch for their own children, because they eat in the Space and the municipal authorisation allows us only to warm the food.

 Every month they furnish a packet of diapers and one of refreshing wipes. We request some weekly help in cleaning the area where the children spend their time. On feast days, twice a year, I organise things in such a way as each child may bring some different thing for the success of a moment of conviviality, so that all may contribute their share. 

What is the programme of a typical day?

“I open the “Space” at 7.30 and the children start arriving at 8, 00. The welcoming “rite” and the greetings of parents last up to 9, 30. Each baby has its own entrance rite. One likes to stay near the radio listening to music in order to face the detachment from their parents in a better way, others live the moment with tranquillity. There is a time for games and other activities at 10. Each child in one’s own chair plays with small tubs containing different shaped pasta, which he slides in small sticks. Several children play with lentils or beans. Sometimes we play with water, with salted dough to mould small objects using small moulds, simple and perhaps imperfect things, as fruit of their talents. I dedicate some space also to the human body, with shapes drawn on a sheet of paper. I use the shell of eggs and tiny many-coloured balls to facilitate the learning of colours and of different tonalities. These games last thirty minutes because they soon get tired. We go back to the games hall, where we dance and play up to lunchtime. I speak only the Italian language with them, so that they may learn it well. They are very receptive. I narrate the fable of Biancaneve, their favourite fable; I rarely use the TV for the viewing of animated cartoons, knowing that they spend plenty of time at home before the TV screen. Usually I use the TV in May-June to prepare them for the year-ending feast. On this day, some personages of their favourite fable arrive at the Space, to play with them”.   

Why did you choose to be with the children?

“I have always liked to work with children. When they proposed this to me, I was in Monza, at a community of therapeutic recovery. On September 1999, they asked me whether I was ready to come to Rome, in the Noviciate House, to organise and manage this work in contact with children, together with a co-sister, who would be the responsible person. By the end of October of the same year, I prepared the environment for the children and took my contact with the territory, because at the beginning it seemed that there was no child to take care of. In fact, for a few months there was only one child, joined by eight more children within fifteen days

There have always been some particularly dear children, but we cannot help loving all of them. They need our welcome and our love. They must feel that we love them in somebody greater than we are; a Person who loves them independently from their religious creed. For Christmas, I narrate the story of Jesus, set up the crib and the Christmas tree. The children help me to fix the little statues, are attentive and curious to my narration. When the children look at the Crucifix, they often ask me, “Who is he?  I answer saying, “He is Jesus with open arms, ready to welcome and to love everyone”.

Their parents, including the Muslim ones, know all this, but they have never objected to it. I never had any problem based on religious differences. One year I was among a small group of parents: we rehearsed together and I tried to involve them by asking them to share their experiences and the meaning of Christmas in their countries. At first they felt uneasy for which I started and they followed, though the children around us kept on claiming our attention”.  

Do you succeed in keeping your dialogue with them?

“We keep our contact with some families, but normally, as they grow we do not see many of them any more. Some children of the first year, who now are studying in Middle classes, often contact me and when their mother phones to me, usually she passes the phone call to her child that he may greet me.

What have you learned from this experience with children, bearing fruit also in your choice of a life at the service of the Church?

“First, it made me to go deeper into the sense of charity. What is concretely the charity that we offer in the name of our Congregation? To me, charity is our taking care of a life that blooms out and grows. It is our way of telling the children that there is someone at their side. We tell them that someone accompanies them with the great desire that they may discover and establish a relation with a higher being, who gave up his life for us all.

By living this responsibility for children, I experience the daily presence of God who helps and sustains us, even in our errors. I try to share my love experience with the children and leave the Lord free to complete my action. We can do noting without our trusting Him.

The beauty of our charism is that of letting this love cross me, a love that is greater than I, you and of every other thing. I let this love pass through the apparently simple things and daily relations”.

PROFILE

I was born at Capiago Intimiano, a small town in the province of Como, on January 21, 1958. I started my formation journey in February 1981, in the religious family of the Charity Sisters of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio e Vincenza Gerosa, emitted my temporary Profession on November 13, 1983 and my Final Profession on November 21, 1987. I carried on my service first in a parish community situated in the periphery of Milan, then in a socio-welfare Institute, in Milan, in a community for minors at Saronno and in a therapeutic community of Monza. I am in Rome since October 1999 and work in the “Baby Space”, a welcoming centre for foreign children from 10 months to three years old.