In Corso Palermo, “Good news for Barriera” has been posted on the external wall of the Maria Regina della Pace oratory since Palm Sunday, March 24th. The young people of the parish, led since last October by priests of the Sermig fraternity, have in fact hung some panels along the entire wall of the oratory which represent a possible change for the neighbourhood, marked by hardship, starting from the concrete commitment to their territory experienced in recent months.
«One day a few months ago», write the young people of Peace, «together with our priests we tried to listen to the neighborhood: so we started walking together through the streets of Barriera really observing them. Our gaze has changed, discovering so much beauty and, above all, that it is not impossible to begin an improvement.”
So in the last Christmas holidays the oratory opened its doors on Barriera and landed on the square of Corso Palermo with table football, table tennis and entertainment for children, teenagers, young people and families. At the end of the year, a very crowded Peace March was held through the streets of the area which showed all the beauty and potential of the area. On several occasions the young people from the oratory then set about cleaning the streets surrounding the parish and taking care of the area, involving the community and citizens.
The photos of all these activities are now printed on the wall of the oratory which overlooks the small square of drug dealing and decay, in one of the sections where the problems of the large Turin suburbs are most accentuated.
«The exhibition», underlines Francesca Campogrande, vice-president of the Oratory of Peace association, «also represents an invitation to the neighborhood and the whole city to come and see some ‘good news’ for the neighborhood: the difficulties are enormous, but we are convinced, because we have experienced it, that a change is possible to live well in the Barrier. First of all, we as young people have changed, we have abandoned a sense of resignation or fear, becoming drivers of a transformation starting from small daily gestures that we hope will increasingly involve the people who live in the area.”
During the preparation of the exhibition many citizens stopped curious and then participated in the inauguration which was held at 5pm on Sunday 24 March with the co-parish priests Don Andrea Bisacchi And Don Marco Vitalethe assistant parish priest Don Alessandro Rossiyoung people and the whole community.
The photos of the panels were taken by Andrea Pellegrini, photographer of Sermig and La Voce e Il Tempo.
The exhibition will remain on display for a few months then the panels will be replaced with other “good news” that will emerge and spread.
