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The challenge

The Welcome Kit is a passport of rights created by Studio Super Santos and sponsored by the Italian Authority for Childhood and Adolescence with the aim of providing valuable information and guidance to foreign minors who arrive in our country without the reference of an adult.

It represents a tool designed to give concrete answers to the needs of young migrant minors who arrive in Italy without the legal protection and psychological support of their parents and therefore aims to help break the wall of mistrust and fear, which often leads children to run away or to engage in risky behavior.

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How we organized the intervention

The Kit was realized through a participatory process that involved, in the first instance, foreign minors hosted at the reception community "I Girasoli" in Mazzarino (CL), followed by experts in the field, with associations and institutions involved. The realization process started with the organization of targeted focus groups that provided useful information to create an editorial product that would meet the real needs of migrant minors. The results of this continuous comparison were catalogued and collected and finally Studio Super Santos and Ibby Italia (the national structure of the International Board on Books for Young people that brings together the leading experts in children's literature and publishing) created the Welcome Kit, ensuring its editorial and graphic quality.
The Kit is a living tool, narrated in the first person by a young boy who acts as a guide in the narration of the entire project.

It consists of 26 educational cards written in Italian, English, French and Arabic.

The cards contain practical, logistical and contextual information, together with a small dictionary, as well as specific content aimed at conveying reassuring messages; particular attention has been paid to the choice of colors, images and layout. An aesthetically pleasing and easy to consult tool in which the texts are accompanied by explanatory images of the situations that young migrants often find themselves living in our territory. The kit is not leafed through like a book, but opens like a fan: the papers are rigid and laminated, tied together by a screw to allow quick and immediate consultation.

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The boys and girls who receive it can easily keep it with them (they can put it in their pocket) and use it, not only to better understand what to expect in Italy and what their rights and duties are, but also to learn everyday words, write notes and personal information (a pen is also distributed with the kit), and personalize it with their own name. Some sections are dedicated to particular situations such as that of Eritrean minors (for whom there are some pages in Tigrinya) or girls who land on our shores who, in the pages with a pink outline, find information of a sanitary nature.

The kit was created through a participatory process that involved foreign minors.

The intention is that the Welcome Kit will be delivered to minors immediately after their arrival in Italy: in this first phase, the distribution will take place mainly with the support of associations that at a national and territorial level deal with unaccompanied foreign minors, reception communities and the Guarantors for Childhood and Adolescence of the Regions and Autonomous Provinces. Obviously, there is also a second way to use the materials online. In fact, each sheet can be downloaded free of charge and used even after the first reception.

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The outcome

The Kit is the result of the successful collaboration between Studio Super Santos, Ibby Italia and the Italian Authority for Childhood and Adolescence, with the contribution of experts with backgrounds in Libera and Save the Children. It was born through a participatory process that involved several foreign minors already hosted in foster homes in Italy. Their contribution and the story of their tragic events to reach Europe have been essential to give credibility to the entire project. An object realized with the boys, for the boys, in the hope that the exchange between peers can convey important messages in an even more direct and incisive way.

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Numbers

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