Our group spent the day at the “Comunità di Trasta”, a rehab community centre for people with drug and alcohol problems.

When we arrived we were welcomed by the staff and we were shown around, to get a feeling of the place, its facilities and working areas: we saw the vegetables garden and the greenhouse, a carpenter’s area, the grapevine, the launderette area, the football/volley ground, the dining area, the sitting/library area, etc.

During our tour we were explained by two members of the community about all the activities that they have to undertake according to a strict schedule.

The first thing that impressed me is that everyone who lives in the community has to follow a very precise schedule, having tasks/jobs assigned and strict timing for everything (including specific time to have a coffee in the morning!!). We were told that rules are very important in the rehabilitation process, although this strict type of living is often difficult to be accepted at the beginning but it later helps the guys understand and appreciate the importance of various things. Later in the morning, we had the opportunity to sit down together with some volunteers of the community, who explained us how they help people to get back into normal life, after dealing with the addiction problems first: people in the community are offered an education, being able to get a Primary School Diploma or even a High School Diploma. They are also helped in the process of getting closer to their family, a very sensitive and emotional journey for everyone, not only for the direct people involved, but also for the volunteers.

After hearing about the activities and learning more about the difficult and important journey that people in the community are living, we moved in the dining area and we had lunch all together, starting to get to know people better.

After lunch, we spent some hours having lots of fun playing various tournaments together including table tennis, table football and volley ball. We had a great time and felt really part of the community.

This experience was without a doubt very emotional and left me with lots of thoughts about the great impact that a volunteer can bring to one’s people life. Personally, I don’t want this experience to end here, so I am hoping to get involved in some volunteer activities as it can be really rewarding knowing how much a little help can mean to someone and how much joy it can bring to ourselves!

Just to conclude, I would like to thank Roberto, Walter, Simone, Sonia, Paolo, Raffaele, Angelo, Gianluca, Alessandro and all the guys at the community (including the management and admin team as well as the volunteers staff) for making us feel so much welcome and for the great day spent together! See you again guys!!!

Participants: Alberto Parmiggiani, Alberto Barone, Claudia karacsonyi, Gabriele Ballero, Gaga kochlamazashvili, Giovanni Bertoni, Jeroen Nefkens, Lorenzo Jamone, Manuela Boscolo, Mattia Salvi, Nick Dring, Simone Collobiano, Floriana Sardi, Roberto Rinaldi, Ryo Saegusa, Sergio Marras, Simone Toma