"Food run" for the homeless

Those who live on the street have many needs: first and foremost is the need to protect themselves from cold and hunger. By assisting those who sleep on the street, we can help prevent them dying from this hardship.

For this reason since the beginning of the Eighties, groups of members of the Community go and visit the homeless inside railway stations or where they take shelter for the night, in order to give them a protection against cold: something to eat and something warm to drink, together with covers and other necessities.

During the winter with its rigours, this capillary presence on the street becomes more necessary, in order to help the most isolated and the most helpless people in particular.

Moreover this presence is a visit; it represents to go and meet who is in difficulty, filling their great isolation.

For example in Rome we encounter ca. 1000 people in railway stations and in other places; in Genoa ca. 100 and in Naples 120. Also in Florence, Pisa, Bari and in other west - European towns we meet many homeless, above all in railway stations. In some cities of east - European countries, such as Moscow and Kiev, we encounter and help many poor people, often old, on the streets too. There the number of homeless is always increasing.

In Africa the members of the Community help people living on the street: children, lepers, beggars. In Latin America we help not only street children, but also groups of families, often mothers with children, living on the street because they have lost their home.