In Italy's first refugee center dedicated to fathers and their children, situated on the slopes of Mount Etna, fathers often assume both parental roles, due to the absence of female figures in some families. Just outside Catania in Sicily, the center offers a unique refuge for these families.
We meet the fathers during one of their daily morning Italian lessons. Seated at a circular table, bathed in autumn light, they practice synonyms and antonyms, trying to improve their pronunciation. These fathers hail from Sierra Leone, Mali, Congo, Iraq, and many from Tunisia. In their arms or sitting on their laps are their children. Sometimes they have to interrupt the lesson as Ibrahim prepares baby food for little Omar, while Ayman and Rabeh attend to other matters.
"All of them are fathers without wives, and children without mothers for a variety of reasons. We learn and evolve with them because they have something to teach us too," explains Andrea Pappalardo, director of Sai Pedara for the Il Nodo association. Sai stands for the Italian Interior Minister’s Welcoming and Integration project.
The Sai Pedara Center was created to respond to the changes in migration arrivals: In recent years, there has been an increasing number of fathers and sons attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya and Tunisia.
The center is led by the city of Pedara and managed by Il Nodo and Teams Sol.Co associations. "In September 2023 we started our project by welcoming a father from Congo with his 3-year-old daughter and then day by day, month by month, we have received further requests to welcome other families from all over Italy. The center can hold 40 people, there are 15 fathers and 23 minors at the moment," adds Giuliana Ecora, Migration delegate for the Teams Sol.Co association.
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Ibrahim's story
Several years earlier, on the opposite side of the Mediterranean, 36-year-old Ibrahim Sow from Sierra Leone was trying to escape from Algeria.
He left Freetown, Sierra Leone, with his wife, Kadiatu Kamara, saying goodbye to their two daughters, aged 8 and 11. "We crossed the desert, Guinea, and Mali to reach Algeria," Ibrahim recounts. In Algeria, Kadiatu gave birth to little Adama, who tragically died just days later. "The Algerian police didn’t allow us to go to the hospital because we didn’t have any documents. I miss my baby," he says.
They stayed for more than one year in Algeria, and in 2022 Omar was born. Not wanting to lose his faith in God, Ibrahim and his wife continued their journey to Tunisia. From there in an iron boat, they crossed the Mediterranean Sea arriving in Lampedusa in March 2023. From Lampedusa Ibrahim, Kadiatu and little Omar were transferred to the refugee camp in Bari. "We stayed there for eight months. My wife started to get sick, we went to the hospital and she had some blood tests."
Tragically, Kadiatu died of AIDS shortly after. "I didn’t know my wife had this disease. No one in our country told us. I can’t believe it; I miss my Kadiatu. I love her and need her," Ibrahim cries as he shares his story. Now, Omar, nearly two years old, is his sole reason for living. Omar also has HIV but is receiving care from doctors at Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania. Ibrahim ensures he takes his medicine daily, and thankfully, the baby is in good health.
Before leaving Sierra Leone, Ibrahim was a skilled beekeeper, producing honey in a traditional and environmentally friendly manner. He dreams of returning to that work in Italy.
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Each story is unique
Stories of migrant fathers are different from each other. Ayman, a Tunisian father in the center, is there with his 17-year-old son, Amin.
"We had a logistics company in the agricultural sector. We were well off. After the death of my business partner, the nightmare began. My business partner's sons wanted all our possessions. They wanted to kill my son. So, under those circumstances, we decided to cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of being reunited with my wife and daughter who were still in Tunisia," Ayman said while his son was showing him Arabic rap songs. "He misses his mother terribly and I miss my wife and my daughter."
Like Lamin and other Tunisian fathers, Ayman was a professional worker in his previous life and is doing his best to build something in Italy and get a job.
"They feel an inner emptiness and they have to compensate for the lack of a maternal figure. It’s very difficult for them," explains Alessia Mazzeo from the Team Sol.Co association.
The city of Pedara is very proud of this unique integration project in Italy: "Experiences like these make us proud to be Italians," says Alfio Cristaudo, mayor of Pedara.
Once the Italian lesson is finished, Youssouf and Mohammed play football on the terrace wearing Serie A football team t-shirts. Between them, there are two statues - The Virgin Mary on one side and Saint Joseph on the other.
Previously, the center belonged to a local priest, Raffaele Landolfo, who hosted families of individuals imprisoned for mafia crimes in Catania. He donated the building to Giuseppe Messina, a Sicilian volunteer who now houses migrants and the homeless in his family home next door to the fathers and sons' center. A shrine dedicated to Saint Joseph, the protector of fathers, overlooks the center, providing strength to these families, even though many of them are Muslims.
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