A heart unites Milan and Syrian refugees: "Let's give hope back to children, women and orphans who survived 14 years of war"
Milan, June 13, 2025 – Even among the civilian victims of wars there are those of series A and those of series B. Those who, despite paying the consequences of bombings and armed clashes on their own skin, remain at least "under the spotlight" of the media, TV and international organizations, and those who do not even have this, if we can call it that, luck.
This is the case of the Syrians, forgotten by everyone. Survivors of a devastating civil war that broke out in March 2011, at the same time as the Arab Spring. A conflict that had as its objective the fall of the regime of Bashar El Assad, which ended (at least on paper) after almost 14 years, in December 2024, and after having left a country in ruins that is anything but pacified - divided into occupation zones, spheres of influence, anti-regime militias and the Islamic fundamentalists of ISIS - and with a death toll of over 700 thousand.
They are the displaced. Ignored when the war was massacring Syria, fallen into oblivion today. Apocalyptic numbers: 7.2 million internally displaced people - according to data from the UNHCR, the UN agency for refugees - and 5 million refugees in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt. 47% are children and young people under 18.
Claudia Ceniti is a bank manager in 2011 when she comes across a video of a crying Syrian child asking for help. That face, that pain become the trigger that makes something inside her snap. At the top of a banking group in Milan, a fulfilled life, she understands that something must be done, "that I had to do something". Thus, about a year later in Bareggio, a city in the Milanese hinterland where Claudia lives, the non-profit organization "Il cuore nel mondo" was born. The goal is almost "mission impossible": to create a bridge of solidarity between Milan and Syria , between Italy and the refugee camps in Turkey, "where women and children, many of them orphans, suffer hunger and poverty in general indifference". In fact, Turkey, while welcoming refugees (there are over 3 million in tent cities near the border), does little or nothing for them, nor does it willingly accept that foreign non-profit organizations take care of them.
Yet Claudia – with her there are Luisa Baroni, Danilo Cattaneo, Elena Bonelli and Grazia Palumbo – has managed to perform small miracles in these years. She knows the Syrian dentist Gazi Nasimi who moved to Italy, in the Marche. Together with him the non-profit organization organizes the first missions. Already in 2013 they buy used ambulances and send them to Syria loaded with medicines. Children have been the priority for Il Cuore nel Mondo since the beginning. For a simple reason.
"In the refugee camps in Turkey, disease and malnutrition are widespread," says Claudia, who saw the horror of Syria with her own eyes for the first time in 2013. "The luckiest ones, the luckiest ones, have their mothers with them. Almost all of their fathers died in the war. And then there are thousands of orphans." The first displaced person center that Claudia, Elena , Luisa, Grazia and Danilo focus on is the one in Idlib, in the northwest of the country, where 6 million civilians survive in poverty, when they don't die of hunger. A real hell without doctors and a minimum of health care. "Here we started and continue to support the Bread Project with which we distribute bread and milk, but also water and wood to keep warm in the tents."
Then there are the long-distance adoptions by many Italian families. There are 38 Syrian boys and girls who, thanks to their support, have something to eat and can go to school. Drops of solidarity that at least restore a little hope and confidence in the future. But can you be even more unfortunate than a child who sleeps under a tent drowned in mud and water when it rains? Yes, you can if in addition to hunger, poverty and loneliness you add disabilities, cognitive deficits and autism spectrum disorders. As is happening in Gaziantep, this time in Turkey, where a team of psychologists, teachers and speech therapists works alongside children who have autism problems or suffer from psychiatric illnesses. "We are following about fifty of them, relying on a Turkish NGO - says Claudia - and thanks to the care and love they have received, many of them have been able to go to school". Autism and psychiatric disorders, not to mention motor disabilities, are very widespread due to the many marriages between blood relatives.
How does a relatively small organization consistently guarantee all this from a small town in the Milan area, raising funds for a country and a war that Italians know little or nothing about? " We manage to do it by making enormous efforts," admits Claudia, who does not hide the moments of tiredness and discouragement that she and the rest of the group have gone through in these 14 years. " You have to fight against indifference, and sometimes it is not easy at all. Sometimes you feel like giving up. Then you think about them, you know they need our help. Because they have no one close to them. In the end, no, we do not stop."
Il Cuore nel Mondo organizes shows, events and banquets in the Milanese and Lombardy area to make itself known, raise funds and raise awareness on the Syrian issue. There is already one scheduled for September 20 in Sedriano (Milan), the "Cantabattisti", dedicated to the songs of the great singer-songwriter. "We organize theatrical or musical shows that also want to be fun, carefree. Because in the end we want to nourish hope, optimism and give these children a better future". (www.ilcuorenelmondo.it)
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