Guines (France). From 24 to 27 October 2024, 24 young people of the network of European Salesian youth organizations Don Bosco Youth Net, from Malta, Spain, Italy, Austria, France, and Belgium met at the Community of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Guines, not far from Calais, of Our Lady of the Nations Province (FRB) for the second stage of the “Young Pilgrims of Hope” project started in Spain on the way of Santiago de Compostela.
The project, through the partnership Erasmus+ Key Action 2, is developed between 2024 and 2025. It intends to involve nine Salesian youth from all over Europe in an ideal pilgrimage through the continent in view of the Jubilee 2025, by analyzing the precious cultural heritage of ancient pilgrimage routes and at the same time deepening knowledge of multiple priorities of the European Union.
Each of the four stages in four different European Countries, has its own route and theme linked to the priorities of the European Union and the Cultural Itineraries of the Council of Europe, with the aim of forming young leaders of the Salesian network in Europe on current challenges: interculturality, inclusion, environment, and civic engagement, and to encourage concrete actions in each Country.
Why this second stage at Calais?
The 2nd stage of the project – “Cultural Itineraries for inclusion” – moves on the Via Francigena, the oldest medieval pilgrimage route linking north-western Europe with Italy, from Canterbury to Rome. Through the centuries, the military road, trade route, and pilgrimage route has brought together different values and traditions and has been an important vehicle for transmitting cultural messages from one part of Europe to another.
The chosen location for this activity, Calais, on the border between the European Union and the UK, raises the issue of inclusion and diversity, as it has recently become a hotspot for migrants and asylum seekers, the new pilgrims of the 21st century.
Calais is therefore a reference point for migrants who want to cross the Channel and arrive in Britain, pushed ever further north after thousands of miles of travel, months, and even years, for a dream: being legally recognized, able to study and work.
Since January 2024, nearly 30,000 migrants have crossed the Channel on makeshift boats, taking ever-increasing risks. 2024 is also the most fatal year for these migrants. Already 60 have disappeared into the sea, often to the indifference of those who do not know them and with a sense of impotence on the part of those who work by their side every day.
Therefore, during this weekend on the theme of inclusion, participants were able to address the issue of migration with a human approach. For each of the young people present, migrants became faces, words, moments of play and common life. This was possible thanks to a role-play that put them in the shoes of migrants, the testimonies of social workers who are dedicated to the exiled people, and an afternoon spent in contact with them at the Catholic Relief Center located not far from the beaches; women and children on one side and men and boys on the other.
On average, 400-500 people go there three times a week to get food, shower, wash their clothes, have a coffee, recharge their phones, ask for help in coping with police pressure for their rights and documents, to find doctors who treat their diseases and wounds in what looks like a field hospital, to be heard and, when the weather is good, to ask for plastic bags to attempt the crossing.
Some responses from the young participants in the experience:
“These days in Calais have been very intense, a real contrast of emotions. Seeing with your own eyes what migrants are experiencing was not easy, but it was very important to understand how these people survive and what they suffer every day. Meeting the volunteers who help these fleeing people was great and interesting. Talking to them I learned a lot, without forgetting the beautiful company of all the people who are part of the Don Bosco Youth-Net network. It was one of those experiences rich in people and moments that will never be forgotten”. (Pietro, TGS Eurogroup)
“Four days in all, but with a stage of life that gives us a new possible horizon of meaning and that helps us to find another meaning to our being among the children, to do the most important thing we can to help the people we met: change the world one look at a time”. (Davide, TGS Eurogroup)
