“I accepted this assignment in order to make concrete my choice to live the spirituality of unity, staying connected with other politicians who, like me, commit themselves to seek the common good and to make brotherhood emerge as a political category.” These are the words of Maria Elena Loschiavo, Deputy Mayor responsible for social politics and schools, in a municipality of just over 7,000 inhabitants. The past scholastic year several children and teens who exhibit learning disabilities and who, for various reasons, cannot depend on their families for support, were brought to her attention. “I wanted to invent something for them, but the friends of the Administration reminded me that there were no resources. So I discussed the matter with my husband, and then I spoke with friends and colleagues who are retired, and I called some young people I know. I immediately had at my disposition a good group of people from various cultures and religious traditions. Talking with them, we got the idea for an after-school program, every afternoon, from 3 to 5 pm. It was a bit of a gamble because starting something means carrying it through to the finish. It also means saying goodbye, for months and months, to our afternoon rest time. But we wanted to try, we wanted to enter the hearts of families who feel marginalized.” As soon as the town announcement was made public, many requests arrived, but the limit was 25 students. “For each one of them, there is a story, with troubling family situations which unfortunately do not help their inclusion in the learning process. We barely had time to organize ourselves, and then on March 9th, with great enthusiasm, we began: in a rather naïve way, without knowing exactly what we would encounter. But in the end the results were certainly visible! From the families, who strongly ask that the experiment be repeated next year, and especially from the children and teens.” “As the municipal administrator of a small town, I must admit that creating a team of people who are willing to give, is not easy to do. But neither is it impossible. It has certainly been exciting to see how each person in the group has accepted the chance to work together to love these young people, giving them a piece of his own life. We experienced together that freely giving is a difficult path to take, but it makes you feel you are building universal brotherhood, starting from the town where you live.” In October, the project begins again, this time with new developments, but still at zero cost, both for the administration and for the users. “In this second year,” explains M. Elena, “we can count on a greater number of teachers and therefore a greater number of children who can access the program. The location will be at the school, which facilitates working in synergy with the teacher of the class, who can observe each child’s difficulty, allowing us to immediately begin working to solve the problem. Thanks to the volunteer work we can avail ourselves of a medical-psycho-pedagogical laboratory. The teens will have recreational time (in our town there are many talents, great and small, in the fields of animation, painting, dance, etc…) and for the mothers there will be a yoga class each week. And with the support of the Athletic Associations in the area, there will be activities for motor development education. ” “The ideas that are being fulfilled here are many, but I am sure that many others will come, because as someone told me one day, in the field of solidarity it’s enough to take the first step. Then solidarity itself will guide the next ones.”