NAPLES -- I have always loved children, first as a human being, and then as a father, because it is because of them that life takes on meaning. From them we begin and to them we return in an incessant cyclical movement. They represent a world of innocence, lightness, love, passion, desires, fears, wounds, smiles, purity, hope.

 Children of war who are armed and wounded, who have been broken by a hard and cruel life, could have been happy children who play, sing, and rejoice. Too often, children have to grow up too quickly, under bombs and without freedom. Children must not be harmed!

 I have walked along the walls of existence and I have known hardship in life, but I always recognised the soul of the world in a child’s face, at times with a mask of hardness, other times a smile of happiness.

 It is our duty to protect children and for them, through them, we must implement social, economic and cultural policies that aim to defend and improve the world of childhood and adolescence.

 The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, approved in 1989 by the General Assembly of the United Nations, is an excellent document to learn about the obligations of states and the international community towards children. The ideological and cultural value that subsists at the bottom of the Convention are commendable, but is it capable of alleviating the pain that afflicts so many millions of children?

 There are far too many cases of young people living in poverty. One doesn’t have to look hard to see everyday scenes of situations causing lasting damage.

 We are experiencing a dark period, made even more intense by the Covid 19 pandemic, which has severely tested not only the economic fabric of our society, but also the social and psychological strands. In this situation, the government, and I am also speaking of the local administrations, should propose investments, reforms and essential tools to prevent child hardship and to implement remedial and protective actions. It is necessary to refer to an overall system of interventions that, taking care of the child, also supports the family especially in the most critical and uncomfortable situations.

 I am of the idea that it would be good, for example, to increase the presence of kindergartens and preschools that in Italy are still lacking and unequal between the North and the South, in order to expand education and care services from the very first years of life ensuring a child-friendly environment where you can express and strengthen the individual character, affective and cognitive expressions of each child. An improvement in early education would hopefully counteract any early school leaving, which is often considered a profound scourge given that, especially in the South, it happens in situations that are already precarious and uncomfortable. I therefore think that guaranteeing increasingly widespread social inclusion is another fundamental element for the healthy development of children and adolescents. Structurally adapting a territory by building gyms, laboratory structures, and meeting places would certainly produce across-the-board positive effects for the individual as well as for families.

 Preventing and combating isolation as well as guaranteeing the rights of children, adolescents and minors means reducing child poverty, promoting equal opportunities, offering access to care and training services, offering a hot meal, and providing health care and a house in which to build one's own identity.

 The safe-guarding and protection of children and adolescents is functional and responds to the socio-educational question if the services and actors involved are capable of addressing the needs of the individual, all the while considering cultural, structural, territorial and environmental differences.

 I am convinced that Love is the driving force for an effective care relationship. That a new page can be opened for the promotion of childhood, adolescence and family policies capable of effectively addressing the challenges identified and capable of responding to the needs, desires and hopes of the new generations. Thoughts are not enough; in order to repair the damage it is necessary that all good projects become material. Stand in front of every real child and try to understand what is needed for her life; it is not enough to flaunt the propaganda of human rights. Looking at their eyes in which a private humanity is marked, in some cases, of the same humanity, observing eyes that forgiveness in the fixity of nowhere, crossing the eyes of innocent victims, of little ones lost in life without heat is just a beginning to embrace the body, caress the soul and make these gestures the principle on which to base great actions. Enough of physical abuse; enough of psychological abuse. The child should feel no sense of guilt. They will be the men who will rule the future world to make it better!

 The fear of growing must not be a limit to growth, but the strength to overcome the present.

LITTLE PRINCE…

I imagine you

at play with the birds

among the clouds of the sky.

I imagine you

at play with children

chasing and treading

meadows and valleys.

I imagine you

in the joy of youth.

In the smile of the sun

I caress you,

my wad of love and pain.

I imagine you

in the steps of my life.

I feel your heart

beating

As emotions ebb and flow

most beautiful of my existence.

I imagine you

In my dreams

Hoping that you continue to dream,

That you continue to live

and that you continue to hope,

little Prince

from my great

and painful existence.

I imagine you…

Francesco Terrone