the scouts of Foggia 1 close the financial year in Terra Aut

Angela Cianci who tells the story of her brother Michele, an innocent victim of the mafia, killed in Cerignola on the evening of 2 December 1991 for opposing a robbery attempt. Dora Giannatempo explaining the purposes of Terra Aut, an asset confiscated from the mafia now managed by the Altereco cooperative, which from a symbol of violence and organized crime has become a place of work, economy, inclusion, justice, rights, participation. Rovers and listeners who listen, live the moment with intensity, reflect on what they have heard. Because the meaning of the two days that saw the Agesci scouts of the Foggia 1 group of the San Michele parish was precisely that of participation, responsibility, the importance of remembering. Starting from the knowledge of the names of the innocent victims of the mafia and the social reuse of confiscated assets returned to the community.

NO TO THE WASTE CULTURE. It is here, in the Cerignola countryside, that the Foggia 1 scout group decided to close the membership year, waiting to live the experience of the camps and the summer route scheduled between July and August. «Let’s live the word legality to the full, let’s give it meaning in everyday life. We experience the beauty of the earth, like this place in which we find ourselves, which becomes an opportunity for redemption for the people who have made mistakes. Pope Francis urges us to say “no” to the throwaway culture” is the meaning of the homily by Father Giuseppe Rainone, ecclesiastical assistant of the group. In fact, it is precisely on the land of Terra Aut that prisoners or ex-prisoners from the External Criminal Enforcement Office are employed and, through social farming activities, we begin a path of work and social inclusion, with the aim of offering new opportunities for life compared to the false promises of the street.

THE DAY. It is no coincidence that in the morning cubs and cubs, explorers and guides, rovers and scouts and community leaders, together with their families, planted seedlings in the Terra Aut garden, with the commitment to take care of them, to participate in the next collection and to support concepts such as legality, social justice and rights through practical anti-mafia actions. Among the most emotional moments, the reading of the 33 innocent victims of the mafia in the province of Foggia, punctuated by a touch of the countryside, to remember their names and invite those present to dwell on the sacrifice of each of them for the common good of legality and of justice; the moment of the passage of the boys from the Novitiate into the clan, the community of rovers and scouts who welcomed the youngest to experience the road, the community, the service, the faith together. Another year has passed and as Father Giuseppe recalled, the hope is that every step the scouts take, from the smallest to the largest, has understood the sense of responsibility to «leave the world a little better than we found it, with our deeds and our actions.”

THE EDUCATIONAL PROPOSAL. Moreover, the educational and training proposal of the Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts Association is still alive and current, and continues to accompany the growth of many children, teenagers and adults. Adventure, game, faith, road. The educational method of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scout Movement, is a proposal that sees young people as authentic protagonists of their growth. How? Through the love of nature, of adventure, of life in the open air. The rediscovery of manual skills, of service to others, of good deeds. The road, sharing, effort, rules, loyalty.