“The Central Station”
Every year, millions of persons pass through Milan Central Station. Among them, a living people which wander about aimlessly. Human beings mingle with the rich Milan running crowd, and too often trapped in their own tragedies. Men and women which shock very often passengers: they istintively drawn back from people staggering, dirty and in raggs. They are usually homeless, ill, without aims. Young subjects, old people, children who get Milan and live sometimes in it for years completely alone and in dire poverty.

“SOS Central Station”
In 1990, father Antonio Mazzi and Italian Railways set up SOS Central Station exactly to care these hopeless and neglected people.

“Abject poverty and neglecting”
In ten years, SOS contacted 4974 men and women among whom drug adicts, alcoholics, psychiatric patients, misfits and old clochards, the most part of which coming from other lombard cities, other italian regions and from abroad as well. None of them has a home and not even a refuge for the night.

“Alcoholism and drugs”
We are so speaking about hopeless and neglecting people who is very often on drugs or on alcoholism, against which brother Ettore, SOS, voluntary workers of movable Unities, City Angels, and since february 2000 Town Council too are fighting to take them from a degrade which becames worse and worse. Thanks to their first help, many of them come back home, began therapeutic programs, accomodate in health or rehabilitation instituitions, or, at least, improve their life standard. Anyway, 54 of them died because of drugs or alcoolism deseases.

“Foreigns”
SOS Central Station has also noted during last ten years foreign migrants. Since 1990, nord Africans, Albanians, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Ucranians and Moldavians; thousand of people looking for a job and dreaming integration who too often found poverty, social and sexual exploitation, when not used in foreing criminal organizations which take recently root in Milan. Central and local Authorities moved in last years their attention from prevention and social help to security: that is why difficult situations we described became even worse.

“Security”
A very dramatic picture all around Central Station: citizens, Railways, travellers, institutions, all unanimously ask for security; anyway, in ten years, SOS cecked without doubts that police intervention alone ‘clean’ territory only by moving further that wandering and disturbing people: who would probabily need to be welcome and to be integrated using a true and reliable social plan instead of police reports and deportation decrees.

(trad. Claudia Di Filippo)