The second edition of the “Gianfranco di Dario” Award on the theme: “The violated rights of children”, organized by the Association: “Time for Peace and development Marche Odv-Ets” ended with an exciting video conference between the students of the “Anna Frank” elementary school (class 5A) – IC “Dante Alighieri” of Pesaro and the pupils of the “Aleksa Šantic” school of Novi Grad Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina). In the city council hall in the presence of the deputy mayor Daniele Vimini and the mayor Matteo Ricci (in video), the school directors Alessandra Zacco and Amina Delic, the president of Time for Peace Bruna Castellani and Gianfranco’s family, his wife Miranda and his son Luca, the two videos created by the students of the two schools were viewed, commented and judged. The theme was explored in depth under the guidance of teachers attentive to educating pupils by making them protagonists of research, songs, poetry and participation in events. For the Novi Grad Sarajevo school this meant walking the Path of Remembrance of the tragedy of the 4-year siege of Sarajevo which cost the lives of 1601 children. For the Pesaro school it meant approaching the tragedy of the 35 minors who died in February a year ago in a shipwreck near the Cutro beach (Calabria) together with 60 other Asian and African refugees. The two poems composed and sung by the students give all the sense of the need for peace in the face of the tragedies of war. The pupils of Pesaro in “Singing beyond the sea”, referring to the children shipwrecked in Cutro, launched an urgent invitation to the rulers: “Among the waves of the sea, plant flowers, they are the 10 rights that go straight to the hearts”. Thus the pupils of Sarajevo in their heartfelt song “Give us Love” (and not wars! and not mines! and not snipers!).
Luigi Diotalevi
