Meet the Italian who drove 3,200-km to pick up Ukrainian refugees

Public help for taking in Ukrainian refugees, like in lots of different elements of Europe, is powerful in Italy, with one current ballot suggesting greater than four-in-five individuals have been in favour.

On-line the sentiment is identical. One Fb group for Ukrainians in Italy has seen a surge in presents for lodging and jobs since Russia’s invasion.

The political class in Rome, too, has shortly mobilised in its help for Ukrainians, whereas donations to a fund for these fleeing are nearing €4 million.

However few Italians have gone to the lengths of Daniele Bellofiore.

The Turin-born 44-year-old has many years of expertise in hospitality and humanitarian work. After abandoning a regulation diploma and a job in IT, each of which have been far faraway from his targets, he determined to attach his ardour for nature and serving to others by transferring to Kenya and Tanzania, the place he arrange two associations to help small companies and craftspeople. He spent 12 years there after which moved again to Italy, opening a B&B in Tuscany, which he runs to at the present time.

Following Russia’s assault on Ukraine and the next humanitarian disaster, Bellofiore was left feeling profoundly involved. But it was an in depth Ukrainian household pal – Oleg, a doorman in his mom’s residence block in Rome – who triggered him into taking motion.

“On the primary night time of the conflict, I requested him how I might assist, and if there was somebody I might assist,” Bellofiore instructed Euronews. “A number of days later, he instructed me he knew some individuals who wished to flee.”

Bellofiore would later uncover that these people had managed to flee, however that there was one one who hoped to rescue their cousin. By then, Oleg’s phrases had phrases strengthened Bellofiore’s resolve, and his intentions have been set. With none monetary backing apart from a number of donations from pals, Bellofiore spent the times rousing help and getting a bunch collectively to plan a street journey to Poland.

‘It was a complete emergency, indescribable’

On the morning of 6 March, Bellofiore and his workforce left the Tuscan city of Siena. The group introduced medical provides, meals, garments, blankets and different requirements and met up with different helpers alongside the journey up the peninsula. The convoy had eight individuals in six vehicles.

After stopping for the night time in Vienna, Bellofiore made it to the Polish border metropolis of Przemyśl, fewer than 100 kilometres from Lviv, by Monday afternoon. They left their provides and went to the makeshift Tesco refugee centre, the place Bellofiore witnessed scenes that left him profoundly distressed.

“What I noticed there’s corresponding to what I witnessed in my time in Africa,” he recounted. “It was a complete emergency. It was indescribable.”

The next day, the workforce dispersed to different cities like Medyka, finally managing to choose up between 10 and 20 individuals, in keeping with estimates from totally different workforce members.

Bellofiore himself accompanied an 84-year-old woman, who was affected by visible impairment, her youthful niece, and her two canine, to convey them to Italy, lastly making it again to Rome on Wednesday. “Terrified and in a state of utter anxiousness” initially of their journey, by the tip, Bellofiore recounts how they have been instructing him Ukrainian songs and singing collectively.

Being the primary street journey of this type, the logistical channels alongside the 1000’s of kilometres have been a number of. However Bellofiore’s plans don’t finish there, as he’s promptly anticipating to embark upon a second journey on 13 March. This time, he’s planning one thing larger – extra individuals, higher coordination, and a minivan to assist issues alongside.

Amongst others, Stefano Torrelli can also be planning to hitch Bellofiore once more on Sunday. The 33-year-old native of Reggio Emilia, in northern Italy, instructed Euronews he was left “unable to sleep or work” upon listening to the information of Ukraine’s invasion. He discovered Bellofiore’s initiative on Fb – which instantly urged him to hitch within the effort.

“We introduced as many as attainable who wanted to return to Italy with our vehicles, all of them having to go to totally different locations,” he acknowledged. “We noticed the concern and the uncertainty in individuals’s eyes, we noticed individuals who should have handed unimaginable horrors. For our subsequent journey, we’re planning to have an even bigger automotive, vans, and to assist much more individuals.”

Throughout and following his journey, Bellofiore is documenting every part on social media, sharing movies on his Fb web page (titled “Daniele Unpostonelmondo”, after the identify of his B&B). However whereas the feedback and likes – which embody messages of gratitude from the kin of these he’s helped – nonetheless stay within the double digits, his initiative is spreading quickly, to the purpose that he’s now inundated with lots of of messages and requests.

“We speak about [refugees] as in the event that they’re packages to move from one place to a different,” Bellofiore lamented. “However these are people, every of whom have their wants. As a part of this mission, we attempt to assist these individuals discover their internal peace proper from the beginning of the journey itself.”

‘Individuals again residence are terrified’

Peering from behind a busy freeway in Rebibbia – Rome’s much-maligned jail neighbourhood – a small Ukrainian flag flaps violently within the gelid northerly winds which have been freezing the Italian capital for the previous few weeks.

Apart from the pole, an enclosed alleyway resulting in a small bungalow reveals a bilingual poster promoting a Ukrainian restaurant after which an indication: Associazione Cristiana Culturale Italo Ucraina (Italo-Ukrainian Christian Cultural Affiliation).

Whereas nondescript in its look, the gate conceals one of many predominant organisations on the forefront of a Herculean effort to help Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Italy.

From effectively earlier than the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the centre – based by a former Italian Marine, Mario Tronca – has been helping and internet hosting Ukrainians wanting to return to Italy.

But arrivals have dramatically multiplied since Russia despatched its troops in.

Because the solar begins to set, one other coach loaded with passengers makes its manner into the centre’s sprawling automotive park. Volunteers hurry to greet the current arrivals, who’re worn out by the sheer size of their journey. As one of many assistants, Igor, revealed, lots of them have been ready for over twelve hours attributable to queues on the Austrian border.

Small pastries and toys are swiftly distributed. Wrapped in puffer coats and gloves, one mom, accompanying her ten-year-old daughter, recalled their traumatic expertise after leaving their residence in Kyiv.

“We left on the second day of the conflict, stopping in varied cities, in the course of the bombings and rubble, after some pals got here with a automotive to convey us out,” she instructed Euronews.

“There are pals right here in Italy who can be internet hosting us. We nonetheless know so many individuals again residence, they’re all terrified.”

The lady is one in every of greater than 23,000 Ukrainians escaping to Italy, most of whom have fled for the reason that invasion on 24 February.

Vehicles proceed pulling up, conversations swap seamlessly between Italian and Ukrainian, and other people come to offer support. One helper, carrying packing containers, reveals in passing that her household continues to be caught in Ukraine and that every one she will do proper now could be assist those that are have made it out.

As dusk descends, the lately arrived people quickly disperse, leaving the automotive park as empty and silent because it was half an hour earlier than.