How does Asociația Il Giocattolo operates?
1° We have minimum structural costs, because each attendant pays his own food,trip and accomodation. The only costs are the salary of the accounting managers and the ones for the office in Anina, which also include mere social activity ( heating and electricity). The money is entirely spent for the activities. We are supported by the financial commitment of the founders and the economic contribution of the members and the ones who like our projects.
2°Our aim is to give kids and teenagers a base upon which they can build their own future, as we believe that everybody has a talent to nourish and it is our task, as adults, to lead them to the right path. With our various activities (you can see examples here) we try to share principles and rules ( because life is also a matter of rules). Especially we want to teach them that civil rights go along with duties.
We are aware that by giving a kid the possibility to create his own life we contribute to create a better world and a better future for ourselves.
3°We avoid simple charity by giving tasks to the adults, so they can achieve:
-satisfaction from earning something through personal commitment;
-knowledge in different fields( many people who worked with us at the Branet project are now working as bricklayers thanks to the knowledges they acquired from us);
-they construct/renovate buildings or public areas used by the whole community (schools, kindergarten,halls etc…).
We try to fight against the discrimination of the țigana population (whom we call Roma, gypsies) by bringing together ethnic Roma children and others. The results are remarkable!
We try to share the ideal of a human fraternity that goes beyond borders and barriers. We are Italian and we help Romanian people because Europe is just ‘’a handkerchief in the wide world’’ and young Romanians will be the new Europeans.
We are not a religious association but many of us strongly believe in Divine Providence, others are not believers but it is certain that we all work for "the good", in a union that overcomes differences of belief and unites us for a "high common goal".
We agree with these quotes from Pope Francesco:
<<There are still millions of children who suffer and live in a similar condition to slavery. They’re not numbers: they’re human beings with a name, a face, an identity given to them by God. We can’t ignore all of this. Too many times we forget our responsibility and close our eyes at the exploitation of these children, who don’t have the right to play, to study, to dream. They don’t even have the warmth of a family. The cry of this situation can’t be unseen: all the children who are marginalised and abandoned from their family, without education, medical support, they scream! A scream that elevates to God and denounces that system that we, the adults, built. An abandoned child is our fault.
We can’t continue to live like this: we can’t continue to allow them to feel lonely and abandoned; they must have education and feel the love of a family, to know that God does not forget them. (5/11/22)>>
<<…. In life there is a dangerous kind of paralysis. It is not easy to put our finger on it. I like to describe it as the paralysis that comes from confusing HAPPINESS with a SOFA! In other words, to think that in order to be happy all we need is a good sofa. A sofa that makes us feel comfortable, calm, safe. A sofa like one of those we have nowadays with a built-in massage unit to put us to sleep. A sofa that promises us hours of comfort so we can escape to the world of videogames and spend all kinds of time in front of a computer screen. A sofa that keeps us safe from any kind of pain and fear. A sofa that allows us to stay home without needing to work at, or worry about, anything. “Sofahappiness”! That is probably the most harmful and insidious form of paralysis, which can cause the greatest harm to young people. “And why does this happen Father?” Because, little by little, without even realizing it, we start to nod off, to grow drowsy and dull…………….. For many people in fact, it is much easier and better to have drowsy and dull young people who confuse happiness with a sofa……..
But there is another truth: dear young people, we didn’t come into this work to “vegetate”, to take it easy, to make our lives a comfortable sofa to fall asleep on. No, we came for another reason: to leave a mark. It is very sad to pass through life without leaving a mark. But when we opt for ease and convenience, for confusing happiness with consumption, then we end up paying a high price indeed: we lose our freedom. We are not free to leave a mark. We lose our freedom…..
Right here there is a great paralysis, when we begin to think that happiness is synonymous with comfort, that being happy is walking in life asleep or narcotized, that the only way to be happy is to be as dazed. It is certain that the drug hurts, but there are many other socially accepted drugs that end up making us much or more of a slave. Both of them strip us of our greatest good: freedom. They strip us of freedom. (G.M.G Kracov 30/7/2016>>