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Carelinks | Sicily
T
he situation in Sicily is significantly worse
than in mainland Italy. Many thousands of
Africans are roaming the island, homeless,
penniless and destitute. It’s mainly just
women and children (a minority of the migrant
population) who get a place in a camp. And
the mafia are clearly using those camps as a
source of sex workers, drug pedalling and
other criminality. We continued to support
brother Godson in the rental of a small hall
which is a place where he can distribute food
and clothing to the migrants, and frankly
where the women can come in the day time
and be safe. We have funded hospital fees,
medicines, emergency shelter, clothes, food
and the expenses for children for the single
mothers. Like brother Joseph, Godson has a
wonderful heart for people.
We gave support to enable the work here to
continue in this way. He also distributes our
literature to the migrants, and this visit we
were able to baptize brother Moses and five
sisters: Juliette, Blessings, Happy, Julie and
Victoria, all baptized in a painfully rocky inlet
near Syracuse.
These are all Godly, conservative African
women who passed through really terrible
experiences at the hands of the traffickers in
Libya and are now in a similar vulnerable
position in the camps. No wonder they are
turning to the Lord with all their hearts and
gratefully reading His word from the NEV
Bibles provided. Some are pregnant, not from
their choice but because of these experiences.
We also bought a lot of food and also many
cans of Malt drink which is full of vitamins. You
can see a brief video of the various baptisms
at:
We appealed earlier for your prayers for a
young lady from a Christadelphian family in
Nigeria who had got to Sicily. Her parents and
brothers are all Christadelphians and she grew
up attending Sunday School and CYC and has
a good knowledge of the Truth. The journey
through the Sahara and the abuse in Libya is
really awful. The Italian Government are doing
what they can for vulnerable female migrants,
but at best it means sending them to live in
dilapidated buildings in some remote spot. She
has been for a year in a very remote village in
central Sicily, living with other vulnerable
African women. The area is very poor, with
many houses deserted and people just buying
things from visiting mobile traders as the
shops have largely closed. It’s really a ghost
town.
The conditions in the camp are so bad they
have attracted attention from an NGO which
tracks the abuse of migrants. Their reports
claim that only 1000 people live in the area,
and that the statistics office reports that the
average age is 70. Anyone younger has gone to
the towns or emigrated. If the women just
leave the camp, then they are outside the
Bro Moses’ baptism with Bre Godson and Duncan
~ continued ...