A social centre in Bolivia offers support to 220 children and families in need. Silvio’s story: today he works for the same institution that saved him and cared for him when he was a child.

Silvio lives in Cochabamba; he has 10 siblings. His father, who was a miner, died when Silvio was 10 years old. Since then, his mother brought up a family of 11 children all by herself. They lived in a 4 x 5 metre room in a neighbourhood where drugs and robbery were the main activities for children. Now, Silvio works for the Unisol Foundation, the same charitable institution that one day saved him and his brothers from the life of sreet children.

This foundation is also supported by AFN Onlus (an association set up by the Focolare New Families Movement) through specific Distance Support programmes, that offer services to help with  the education, nutrition and good health of children, while also seeing to their families and communities to ensure as much as possible that the children’s development takes place in a healthy environment. The implementation of these programmes is coordinated at a distance with competent local staff. But what does the foundation actually do? We put this question to Silvio, whose life story is entwined with that of Unisol, a foundation which today supports 220 children and families in need.

Laura Salerno’s interview with Silvio (choose English subtitles):

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