We were welcomed on the other shore of the Mediterranean at carefully set tables, laden with steaming dishes of couscous and vegetables fragrant with spices, joyfully prepared by women whose strong smiles reflected their pride—pride in a newfound autonomy they had achieved through training and work.

We found the same pursuit of beauty in village schools across Africa and India, among neatly arranged supplies and simple classrooms brightened by vivid colours. And again, in educational centres in the vast urban outskirts, in schools in challenging neighbourhoods, in the music and theatre rooms of juvenile detention centres we visited—where welcoming spaces have been created, spaces for new ways of thinking, stages for possible lives, where positive, transformative relationships and opportunities for the future can take root.

In these contexts, care and beauty are not ends in themselves but become the pursuit of harmony between individuals, communities, and the environment. For 25 years, we have been walking alongside those who chose to stop and look, those who decided to stay and not turn away, those who cared, those who chose to say with conviction, ‘This concerns me.’ Over the years, we have changed, yet we have always kept one goal clear: to ensure that those we support will no longer need our intervention.

We have identified education and work as the most effective tools for fostering self-determination, awareness, and acknowledgment of one’s rights and potential—paving the way for a clearer vision of both present and future. By giving individuals the means to grow, our aim is to give each one, in their own way, the ability to make the choices as they see fit, to imagine, shape, or reshape their path, to conceive and pursue new possibilities.

To do this, we have acted with freedom of thought and movement—a freedom we have embraced with a deep sense of responsibility, allowing us to support journeys that often required time and patience to generate and regenerate. And it is towards the future that we now turn our gaze: in this time of crossroads, we feel the weight of the responsibility to venture down uncharted paths, to rethink our approach to increasingly complex social challenges.

By joining forces, we seek to support those who aspire to spark change, to ‘sow restlessness’ by raising new questions; those who, like us, feel that desire for renewal that refuses to accept ‘this is how it’s always been done’ and instead dares to explore new ways of inhabiting the world; those who ‘do not become numb’ and, when confronted with marginalised society, choose to remain and meet the gaze of those who live inside it.

We stand with those who care for others—not just those who worry, but those who take action. We stand with those who do not simply fill gaps but work to remove the obstacles and inequalities that hinder the growth of individuals and communities. We would like to walk alongside those who, without seeking recognition, listen and stand as guardians of change, helping to shape meaningful and lasting transformations.

We want to give people a voice, rather than demand the right to speak. We want to be part of a shared and participatory way of doing. We feel the profound responsibility to help envision alternatives, to ensure equal opportunities where fragility, poverty, hardship, missteps, and denied rights risk stifling talent and potential.

Rita Ruffoli