Fundraising by amici di Matteo

"Ja ni panemaio, italianski... inglish?" is what I slur when someone addresses me. More or less in Russian it means "I don't understand, I'm Italian." And I really don't understand.

I am on my third experience in Ukraine. I participated in two #stopthewarnow caravans, in Lviv and Odessa. A lineup of buses, loaded with food, medicine, basic necessities. Five days of running, round trip.

Each time, on the way back, I tried to stay connected to this conflict, like a thirsty man I thirsted for information. I wanted to understand, I who understood nothing about the war. As I continued not to understand, I felt more and more the need to move actively, to do something myself, not so much for the victims of this conflict but WITH the victims of this conflict. I could no longer stay on my comfortable couch and declare myself against the war."

Matthew was like that. Thirsty for justice, backpacking, ready to devote himself body and soul to those who needed him most.

We thought the best way to remember him was by trying to do something concrete for the victims of this absurd war, for which Matteo spent himself and carried in his heart. That is why we wanted to launch this fundraiser in his memory, to support the presence of the peacekeepers of Operation Dove - a nonviolent body of the Pope John XXIII Community - present in Ukraine since the first days of the conflict.