In just under 24 hours, one of the poorest and toughest neighborhoods of Palermo mobilized to welcome and care for the 717 refugees, including survivors of shipwreck, who arrived in Palermo yesterday, according to La Repubblica. Volunteers from the Falsomiele neighborhood brought clothes, shoes and tee shirts to distribute to thewomen and children, people who arrived, as always, with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The human traffickers do not let them bring clothes, food, life jackets, nor possessions except MAYBE their cell phones because clothes, food and life jackets take up room on the broken-down fishing boats and motorized rubber dinghies they transport them on. Room that could be used to earn another few thousand dollars from destitute, desperate refugees. The volunteers also donated 500 pairs of shoes, 100 tee shirts and other necessities for women and children to the crew of the Coast Guard ship Dattilo so they will have something to offer the next batch of refugees they save, and there will always be a another batch.
Twelve people died when one of the rubber dinghies sank.
The volunteers also comforted the survivors who lost a brother, sister or dear friend in the tragedy. Among the survivors were the young Alpha with his daughter, Prospery, 2 and a half years old, whose mother lost her life on the sunken dinghy. They will remain at the Catholic non profit Caritas until they can decide calmly what to do with their future.
It was a day of pain for the refugees. Local priests organized a Mass said in English for the the dead relatives of the mostly Christian Nigerian refugee survivors.Father Mattaliano remembered the 12 dead people whose bodies arrived yesterday at Palermo on the Dattilo. He assured the survivors their dead would receive a dignified burial.
Twelve people died when one of the rubber dinghies sank.
The volunteers also comforted the survivors who lost a brother, sister or dear friend in the tragedy. Among the survivors were the young Alpha with his daughter, Prospery, 2 and a half years old, whose mother lost her life on the sunken dinghy. They will remain at the Catholic non profit Caritas until they can decide calmly what to do with their future.
It was a day of pain for the refugees. Local priests organized a Mass said in English for the the dead relatives of the mostly Christian Nigerian refugee survivors.Father Mattaliano remembered the 12 dead people whose bodies arrived yesterday at Palermo on the Dattilo. He assured the survivors their dead would receive a dignified burial.