We are the Adonai family home association, my name is Maria Macchini and I am the president of our association which was founded 5 years ago with the help of many volunteers, associates and friends, who still assists and supports with food donations, clothing and support more than 250 families. We too as an association contributed to the immediate help during the flood and we worked hard to organize field kitchens, assistance and delivery of food and clothing in that difficult period for many people. We managed to make 2,700 meals a day until the last minute, and to arrive practically on site directly to the families who needed them immediately.
I remember one day in particular when we received a phone call from one of our volunteers who knew that we were operating in the area and asked us to go and collect a mother with two little girls who had their house completely flooded and had to be transported to the friars’ meeting place. . We found them near their home located near the Sigma supermarket and picked them up in front of the La Torre pastry shop, giving them clean and dry clothes. We accompanied them to the friars, giving them first access while the father remained to shovel the mud from the house with other volunteers. Their house was completely destroyed, flooded, unrecoverable.
They are currently trying to rebuild their house in the San Mauro area in the valley which was completely flooded at the time. We too were overwhelmed by the many shocked and destroyed lives of the people, many emotions that I will never forget, but seeing the smile of those people was priceless, despite all the difficulties they were going through, their smiles, the determination and the desire to start again step by step, bucket after bucket of mud and rubble, singing the song Romagna mia at the top of my lungs. With eyes full of desperation but also of a lot of hope in rebuilding their lives and trying to return to normality as much as possible after a similar catastrophe that affected many families throughout Emilia Romagna. To this day we continue to contribute in a concrete way to all the families who ask us for help and support. We will not stop helping people in need of being close to them and supporting them with what we can for as long as we can.
Maria Macchini from the Adonai family home, her collaborators and volunteers
