Carlos' mother talks about the difficulties of enrolling in school for her children who have just arrived from Nicaragua

To find a school that would accept Carlos, who had just arrived from Nicaragua, his mother went around five times and finally turned to the community of S. Egidio who managed to enroll the boy, 13 years old at the time, in an institute not very close to home. This is told by the woman, Helia Chavez, who arrived in Italy in 2021 and who also brought her two children to Rome the following year. But for the great one, signing up wasn't easy.

"Carlos obviously didn't know Italian - she explains - and so 5 schools refused to accept him. At that point I turned to the community of S. Egidio where I was also attending an Italian course; they have a service called 'Viva la scuola'. Even though Spanish is similar to Italian, at the beginning it wasn't easy for my children to enter school but they quickly learned Italian so much so that in the eighth grade exam Carlos did very well, he had many compliments from the teachers and was rated a 9".

The woman had to leave her job for a while when her children arrived in Italy, "I had to accompany them to school, they didn't find their way and the schools weren't close to home. Without the language you can't do anything - observes Helia Chavez - it's important to make yourself understood, it's very frustrating to try to explain something and not be able to make yourself understood or not be able to ask for help. So I think the government's provision is right. And yet the difficulties of those arriving from abroad should be taken into greater consideration, the enrollment of a child cannot fail be accepted, the problems of immigrants are already many".

The lady assures that the children are happy and integrated with their Italian companions and that there have never been any shadows of exclusion or forms of racism. "They are fine, they have made friends and they know that we escaped from Nicaragua because there is a dictatorship there, it is a particularly dangerous situation and there is a lot of indoctrination in schools."

In the meantime, in recent years, the situation, at least in Rome, has improved: an ad hoc service has been created in connection with the regional school office which works precisely to enroll those who have just arrived from abroad in school: it is called 'Piu' scuola', the service is obviously free.