Theft, drug dealing, robberies and wrong company. Then the sentence: 6 months under house arrest and socially useful work at the Gulliver non-profit organization, first at the Bottega del riuso and now as head chef at the Utopia bar-restaurant. Massimo Amadori, 19, has got his head straight – or so it seems – after years of illegality and over a dozen complaints under his belt relating to when he was still a minor. Wrong company had also led him to be involved in some episodes of the baby gang in Piazza Redi, which for months kept the residents and traders of the area in check.
But now, how do you remember those periods?
“Ugly. I didn’t have a purpose, I didn’t like school and I found myself spending all my time walking around the streets of the city together with people like me who were experiencing the same hardship. One day I robbed, another I stole, I was reported also for injuries and insult to a public official. Unfortunately, I was in a dark tunnel and I couldn’t get out of it.”
When did everything change?
“In 2021, when I had my first confrontation with the judge who sentenced me: house arrest and then socially useful work that I started in that very year with Gulliver. Something in me changed in that exact moment. I had understood that I had to change course because that was no longer life.”
They weren’t easy times, how did you deal with them?
“Nothing has been easy, but today, when I see things more clearly, I realize that it is difficult to get out of the loop. It takes a lot of willpower and people who are ready to help you, who hold out their hand” .
Now that you have also discovered the world of work, how do you find it?
“I discovered life together with the world of work. Today I am one of the head chefs in the Utopia restaurant, in Miralfiore park. We are different tutors and we have the role of checking that everything goes well, that no boy gets hurt and that everything is in order. Thanks to work I discovered that I love helping others and that this makes me feel at ease.”
Now that some of your peers will also arrive to carry out socially useful work at the Gulliver non-profit organization, after the sentence of the Ancona court for 4 minors from the baby gang of Piazza Redi, how do you think they will approach their new life?
“It will be their rebirth and I will be there to lend a hand to each of them as Andrea Boccanera (the non-profit president Gulliver) did with me at the time”.
What do you like most about your job?
“The fact that we are all the same, I consider every boy in Utopia my brother. If someone makes a mistake there are no shouts and insults but we help each other, we grow together”.
Are you satisfied with your new life now?
“Yes, I’m really happy and the thing that makes me most proud of all is that now that I’m carrying out my internship at Utopia, I also earn a small salary with which I can indulge my whims. It’s clean money with which I’m paying myself the driving license and the new cell phone”.
A personal wish for your future?
“To continue doing this job for my whole life. I love cooking and I must say that many people also compliment me, I don’t know if they are fake or sincere but they are still appreciated.”
Giorgia Monticelli
