As part of Italy’s ongoing effort to support Ukrainian refugees, the Italian bishops conference and the Government have partnered to offer a group of Ukrainian children a beach holiday in several seaside towns. Source: Crux.
In an August 12 communique, the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) announced that 42 Ukrainian children and adolescents will be coming to Italy from the cities of Nikopol and Kryviy Rih in Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine.
They will be dispersed among the Italian beach towns of Senigallia, Ascoli Piceno and Macerata along the central-eastern coast for the remainder of the northern hemisphere summer, with the help of the local communities and diocesan Caritas branches in the area.
Supported by CEI, the Vatican embassy in Ukraine and the Italian Government, the initiative was described by CEI as being “a further sign of solidarity of the Church in Italy with the Ukrainian population.”
It is the latest in a series of similar initiatives which so far have allowed more than 600 children and adolescents from Ukraine to spend a few weeks in calmness and serenity, far away from the war and suffering ravaging their country.
Since the beginning of Italy’s summer period, various “solidarity holidays” have been organised with the involvement of various actors, including Ukraine’s two Caritas branches, the Greek Catholic-run Caritas Ukraine and the Roman Catholic-run Caritas Spes, as well as the European Nonviolent Action Movement.
Caritas Italy has partnered with both Caritas Spes and Caritas Ukraine in providing emergency and ongoing aid to Ukraine and to Ukrainian refugees who have fled the war, which began in February 2022.
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Italy’s government, bishops offer Ukrainian children a beach holiday (By Elise Ann Allen, Crux)
