Kalkidan means “promise” in Amharic, and our project was born from a promise made in Ethiopia in January 2023 by one of our founding members.
“… With the promise that I would not forget what my eyes had seen, with the promise that I wanted to do something concrete for the deep gazes of the “invisible children,” with the promise that in returning to Switzerland my commitment would be to those to whom the right to childhood has been denied,” and listening to these words of Alessandra D’Angelo, united by a strong humanitarian spirit, we started a wonderful adventure.
Kalkidan was founded to promote the inclusion of street children in the world excluded from social, educational and family settings. The number of street children is steadily increasing. They have no choice. They are often orphans or children abandoned by their families so they spend their days begging, enacting theft attempts, searching the garbage for food or something to resell. Hunger, abuse and danger are unfortunately the order of the day for “street children.” Kalkidan also aims to raise awareness of the issue in Ticino in order to raise awareness of a sometimes-forgotten reality.
We believe that developing skills such as language, symbolic play, social behaviors and motor skills can help street children build a strong identity and thereby create a supportive social network.
What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.
Nelson Mandela