Friends on the Street

Particularly touching was the case of Modesta Valenti, an elderly woman living at Termini Station in Rome. She died without receiving any kind of medical assistance from the EMTs, as she was dirty and they refused to carry her onto the ambulance. Her story shaped the history of the Community. Over the years, the memory of Modesta became an occasion for prayer together with those living on the street, while giving rise to a large movement of solidarity.

The encounter with this world of the poor, which started in Rome and is now spread out in all the places where Sant’Egidio exists, has given rise to a robust network of friendship and support. Many different projects of solidarity have been initiated and fostered over the years, like: soup kitchens, support centers, night shelters, and permanent housing. In almost every place where Sant’Egidio exists, the Community organizes a distribution of hot meals and blankets at night on the street. This first gesture of proximity is the beginning of voluntary friendship, which is open to a lifetime and reweaves the fabric of society one relationship at a time.

The direct knowledge of the personal circumstances of individual homeless people breaks down those prejudices that influence the way we view this particular aspect of urban poverty. Most dramatic is the idea the world of the poor is a world apart from our own. To the contrary, someone living on the street is a person, like everyone else, who has unfortunately been overwhelmed by those hardships of life that are common to many, such as unemployment, loss of home, marital breakdown, and difficult to address with no support networks. Moreover, it is untrue that those living on the streets do not want to be helped getting out of their situation. Isolation, lack of emotional ties, and difficult pasts make it difficult to even imagine a different future. If you are alone it is almost impossible. It is easier when you have the company and the support of someone with and for whom to do it.