A journey that enriched my life
Paola Iaccarino Idelson is a nutritionist biologist and expert in nutrition. She lives in Naples, southern Italy. I learned from a friend that she went to Brazil during this summer 2024. Intrigued, I tried to find her on social networks. I was amazed by the beautiful photos she had taken during her trip and by the powerful stories, which revealed a profound experience. I therefore decided to contact her for an interview.
Paola, from Naples to Brazil: why did you choose to make this journey?
It is a very long story. I was in Brazil for the first time fourteen years ago in Florianópolis. I went there because I have a passion for the Brazilian language. But I didn’t want to go there as a tourist, so through a doctor friend, I went to help a colleague of hers as a volunteer. We supported a priest in his daily mission. He had opened a school to help children prevent delinquency, and started a surfboard repair shop to provide decent work for local youth. For three weeks I weighed and measured the height of the children in that school: it was such a strong, intense and beautiful experience that when I returned to Italy I had to remove it from my mind so that I could continue living my life as before.
And then? What happened?
Last year I broke up with my boyfriend who didn’t like Brazil. So I said to myself: the time has come to take up this dream once more. But again I wanted to experience it not as a tourist, but by helping the local community in some way. I talked about it with a focolarina friend and she put me in touch with the Focolare community in Amazonia.
I would have liked to volunteer as a nutritionist, my profession, but I was willing to do anything. One of the focolarine in Brazil, Leda, told me about the hospital ship ‘Papa Francisco’ where I could work. So I finally left in August 2024. Leda was an angel, she organised my whole itinerary, put me in touch with the Focolare community and took care of me for the whole time there in Brazil.
The hospital ship Papa Francisco: what did you do there?
There was no specific task for me, as an expert in nutrition. There were about ten doctors, each with their own consulting room. I helped where I could. The alarm clock was set for 6 am as by 6.30 people were already arriving from neighbouring villages to be treated. We had to do reception, register the arrivals and manage the influx. I also did nutritional counselling and realised that there was an overweight and obesity problem, especially in women. I wondered a lot about the reasons for such conditions as it was quite a common problem there. Talking to someone, I realised the problem was a lack of physical activity and widespread use of sugary drinks, sweets and meat.
You were also able to experience first hand a lot of poverty….
I saw really poor but very dignified people who manage to get their children to study. I was very impressed by one family. There are 10 children, you could see that they live in very poor conditions. The father also has some health problems. Despite that, the parents managed to get their children to study, and one of the daughters is about to become a photographer. Great dignity despite those living conditions.
You saw an abundance of diversity, from the natural environment to the colours of people’s skin, from food to smells to tastes…
It was one of the things that struck me most about this trip and that I carry with me. A huge diversity in the way of life, especially in the incredible variety of fruits, vegetables, grains, flowers, plants, the colours of the rivers, the animals, the people. When I registered the arrivals for the visits, in the computer you had to write the colour of the skin and I had four options related to the diversity of ethnicities, origins, skin colour… This diversity was a strong experience and I am convinced that it is a great richness.
of the Amazon River
How did the Focolare community welcome you and help you in this experience?
It was fundamental. I felt welcomed in every place I went. Loving everyone was not a slogan, it was real. I felt loved, people were so open and selfless. It did me a lot of good, a very moving welcome.
You went there to give of your time and professionalism but you received so much more. Has this trip changed your life a bit?
Look, I am fifty years old, not twenty. But why am I saying this? Because in my twenties, or even perhaps in my thirties, I still had the idea of going somewhere to give. Now it is very, very clear to me that the possibility of giving of myself in fact gives me something back. I knew very well that the word ‘volunteering’ included so much. Giving one’s time to others is good. First of all for the giver. I certainly had a very strong experience of sharing with the Focolare community. Although I don’t know the Focolare as a spirituality, I greatly appreciate all its other forms of expression of concrete love. I think it was a very, very beautiful experience. This idea of being able to live together, pooling everything you have, is precisely the idea of community. Being able to do good to others and live with others is something I really like.
This trip has enriched me a lot. It has had and will have a big impact on my life. I have come across wonderful people, realities completely different from my own. I now know that sharing is really possible.
You then returned to Naples and had an unexpected welcome!
Yes, indeed many people I met on my return and who I still meet today, tell me they have read my travel diaries on social media, they thank me for sharing this experience. Many also thank me and some want to know more about this trip. So I got the idea to arrange photo prints and show them at an evening event, where I can also tell them more about the experience. This really struck me: we live in a society where there is never time for relationships. To be asked to spend time together to learn more about my experience is a beautiful thing.
In closing, let’s wind the tape back and look at both your first and second trip to Brazil: how do you live your life today?
My first Brazilian experience many years ago, as I said, had to be removed from my life. Now I am trying really hard not to remove this last trip, not to forget, to keep this experience in my life in Naples and Italy. I want to keep this memory alive. Why? Because it gives me a sense of purpose and strength and it is very gratifying.
The first thing I did, back in Naples, was to contact my Portuguese teacher, who is Brazilian, to learn the language better. But another thing I would like to achieve is a twinning between a Neapolitan kindergarten and a Brazilian one, which is under construction. It would be nice to help those children by sending backpacks and all the necessary school material. Above all, I would love to see Brazilian children and Neapolitan children share their experiences.
Lorenzo Russo
(photo: © Paola Iaccarino Idelson)
Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti were welcomed by a colorful carpet of flowers from ancient religious tradition and by a festive atmosphere at the Our Lady of the Focolarini Mariapolis Center in the Guatemala capital. This is the first stop on an extended visit to Latin America. They have come to visit “the family of Chiara” that lives in this corner of the world. It has been an intense journey in which they have met civil and ecclesiastical authorities and representatives from various lay organizations who are members or friends of the Focolare. It has been a story of life and relationships that have been sown and nourished by Chiara Lubich’s charism of unity. Some have travelled from Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Belize. The ancient cultures of the region are living on in them: Maya, Garifuna, Garifuna, the Incas and Mestizos. A set of dances is offered by children and teens who attend the Fiore Educational Centre in Guatemala City. One moment of the program is dedicated to Fiore Ungaro, a focolarina who first brought the spirituality of unity to these lands. Today the education center has 210 students with 28 teachers and staff. It is a concrete answer of love by the people of the focolare, because as in all Latin American countries, education is perhaps the decisive battlefront in which the wounds of this society will be defeated. The Bishop of Escuintla, Victor Hugo Palma Paúl was also present at a meeting with representatives from ten Movements who are members of the “Comisión de Movimientos Laicales y Nuevas Comunidades” (Commision of Lay Movements and New Communities), an agency of the Bishops Conference of Guatemala. He welcomed Maria Voce and Giancarlo Faletti: “The Focolare is one of the most vibrant schools that we have.” “Your charism is one that enflames, welcomes and warms the Christian life, placing the accent on unity.” Forty focolarini and focolarine live in this Central American country. They come from Argentina, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia and Italy. They are the “heart” of the Focolare Movement and a true reflection of it: different ethnic groups, professions, political, social and economic sensibilities. Maria Voce listens and, at the conclusion of the meeting, shares an idea: Unity should pass through a “culture of trust”. “It is a matter of having absolute trust in the other, in the sister or brother. The other wants what I want – unity. Let what you do not be done to be admired, to assert yourself or so that you may stand out. Let it be done for the sake of unity. Each of you works in a different way, but let each one work for unity. To trust in God and in the other, therefore, is an imperative. It means believing that God is at work. He doesn’t need perfect people, but only those people of whom he has need.” There was folkloristic costume and dance, engaging rhythms and sounds. Six hundred people gathered in the Mariapolis Centre hall. They were all members of the Focolare community living in these lands. This history of the Focolare in Central America goes back to 1954 and it is extraordinary because of the war, the economic difficulties, and the great distances. Yet it is a story that expresses gratitude to God. “Your peoples,” Maria Voce concluded, “seem to me to have a destiny: that of showing what the world would be if account were taken of the value of each human being. Everyone’s experience is necessary to others in order to construct a mosaic of unmatched beauty.” During a meeting with more than 200 youths between the ages of 15 and 25, a deep relationship was established in which, amid the exuberant joy of being together, there also emerged the difficulty of going against the current when it came to making certain choices: “You’re not alone,” Maria Voce told them, “each time that you find yourselves before a choice you must make, remember that you’re not alone, but that all the youths who have made the choice for a united world are with you.”