“It's another world. I entered another world ”.
Dahir repeats it several times, as soon as he emerged from Fiumicino airport and during the journey to his new home, on Thursday 16 September. The world we are used to, before today Dahir had only seen it through a screen, he had never been inside it.
Twenty-four years old, Somali, he is one of the 37 newly disembarked refugees, out of the 45 beneficiaries of university scholarships thanks to the Unicore project (University corridors for refugees)* lead by Caritas Italiana.
Behind him only the endless Somali civil war, since 2009 the refugee camp of Bokolmayo in southern Ethiopia, and the university campus of Jijiga. Nothing else.
He was welcomed in Fiumicino by Paolo Prandini, operator of Caritas of Modena, the city of the UNIMORE University of Modena and Reggio Emilia to which Dahir is destined.
“During the trip to Modena he did not take his eyes off the window - says Paolo -, I told him that he could rest a bit, as he was very tired. I can't, he replied, I have to look where I am, I've never seen anything ”.
While in the refugee camp in Ethiopia, a German NGO had noticed Dahir's aptitudes, curiosity, intelligence and passion for study; so they made sure that he could attend the University of Jijiga, about 1000 km from the refugee camp, where he graduated in Economics. Then the selections for the University Corridors as for the University in Italy, finally the long wait before arriving in this other world, ours.
“Everything he has, was contained in a slim trolley suitcase, continues Paolo; he clearly told me that he is unable to prepare his own food and apparently he's not familiar with the use of cutlery, as well as the wardrobe".
Nothing serious, he will have the opportunity and time to learn the new customs.
The quarantine period awaits him in Modena, even if the double molecular buffer is negative; then he will have a room in the dormitory and a mentor family who will follow him in his footsteps. In the meantime, he is a guest at the Caritas shelter where on Moday, two days after his arrival, he was already connected for his first lesson of the International Management course, in English.
There is no time to waste, and Dahir make think that he will not waste it. Welcome, and good luck to Dahir and all the others newcomers.
* Unicore is a project of Caritas Italiana, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, UNHCR, the Waldensian Diaconia, Centro Astalli, Gandhi Charity and a vast network of local partners. To date there are 28 universities involved, which have made over 70 scholarships available in the last three years.
