Sister Rita Giaretta is a volcano. She never stops, and wherever she can, she continues to create places to save young women from exploitation, violence, abuse, and abandonment. The latest creation of this network is called Magnificat! And it's a 140-square-meter apartment where, among the graffiti on the walls, there's also a celebrated quote from Pope Francis : "Please don't let yourselves be robbed of hope."
A community of consecrated and lay women, mostly migrants, often with young children, embarking on new journeys together. They come from Congo, Iran, and Romania, welcomed by the Ursulines led by Sister Rita, and given training to finally find work. Among the activities established by the dynamic nun is the "New Hope" social cooperative, which runs a tailoring shop employing women freed from the slavery of migrant trafficking. This project has grown over time alongside Sister Rita and her group's most important achievement: Casa Rut, opened several years ago in Caserta, where 600 girls, caught up in the swamp of exploitation, have finally been able to start a new, normal life, without wasting their previous one.
The symbol of this journey is Joy, the Nigerian girl who, having landed in Italy at the age of 23 on a boat with the mirage of a job, was forced into prostitution on the streets of Castel Volturno, in the province of Caserta, by her captors, burdened by the debt incurred with the madam and the blackmail of the woodo. Supported in her journey to liberation by Casa Rut, she told her story in Mariapia Bonanate's book , Io sono Joy (San Paolo edition), with a preface by Pope Francis who writes: "Joy's testimony is a heritage of humanity." Joy, who is now 31, managed to study and graduate, found work at a social-health cooperative, and married an Italian man. Her godmother was Sister Rita Giaretta.
Cover image source: Avvenire
Read also:
- D-Hub: The Center that Trains and Empowers Disadvantaged Women
- Roots: The Restaurant That Trains Immigrant Chefs
- Evalab: Quality seamstresses victims of gender-based violence
- Social tailoring Punto ea Capo: from recycling, work for disadvantaged women
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