Home, a safe place: it is a right that has fallen into rubble for 36.5 million children fleeing their homes due to wars, natural disasters and abuses

MILAN – The house as a refuge in which to feel safe? Not for all. Natural disasters, wars, poverty, violence and abuse can overturn the concept of home as a place to feel protected. CESVI Foundation brings an angle of devastation to the Fuorisalone in Milanin the heart of the celebration of design and the most innovative living trends, with the installation HOME SWEPT HOME by Fabrizio Spucches. A provocation to turn the spotlight on the right to a safe home, promoted by CESVI with the Case del Sorriso programme, which guarantees protection, care, dignity and respect for their fundamental rights to thousands of vulnerable minors in Italy and around the world.

The 400 million children in wars. In the world, more than 400 million girls and boys live in conflict zones and at least 36.5 million are fleeing their homes, the highest number ever recorded, while 8 million children under the age of 5 are at risk of death for hunger in 15 countries hit by various crises. Looking at the impact of climate disasters alone, 10 million children have been forced to leave their homes in one year and, with half of the world’s 2.2 billion children living in 33 high-risk countries, millions more are set to flee in the next years. Looking at Europe alone, the World Health Organization estimates that 55 million people under 18 suffer ill-treatment and are at risk of or have already left their homes. In Italy, there are over 400,000 minors in the care of social services, of which over 77,000 are victims of ill-treatment, from psychological abuse to sexual abuse[3].

The installation at the Museum of Cultures. The installation HOME SWEPT HOME it was presented at the Museum of Cultures in Milan – Mudec – in the presence of CESVI, the Municipality of Milan, Nicolas Ballario and Milano Space Makers. It is visible until Sunday 23 April, at the Opificio 31 in via Tortona 31, at the Fuorisalone, as part of the Milan Design Week, a high-profile event that celebrates beauty and design. The images are by the photographer Fabrizio Spucches, taken in Turkey a few days after the earthquake that hit the country, accompanied by the texts by the writer and journalist Enrico Dal Buono; the curator is Nicolas Ballario. A blow-up covers the entire facade of a dilapidated building, bringing the destruction caused by the earthquake in Turkey into the heart of Milan, with an image of an interrupted normality: houses with bright, cheerful colors but wounded by cracks and collapses, partially collapsed, as empty “shells” that can no longer accommodate those who lived there.

The Houses of Smiles of CESVI. House of Smiles is a CESVI programme dedicated to children, adolescents and young women in situations of marginalization and hardship, aimed at promoting and realizing their fundamental rights. The program includes physical places where services are provided, the Houses of Smiles, but also projects aimed at building paths of protection and making the subjects welcomed architects of their own future. It was born to protect childhood and people in situations of vulnerability, in which CESVI takes care of orphans, street children, abandoned minors, women and children victims of violence and exploitation, to offer answers to immediate needs and start building tomorrow. Currently CESVI manages 7 Houses of Smiles in Brazil, Zimbabwe, Peru, India, South Africa. A total of 5 more will be launched in Italy by mid-2023 Houses of Smiles. After starting the activities in Milan and Bari, in fact, they will open in Naples and Syracuse. In 2022 in Italy CESVI supported more than 1,300 beneficiaries, accompanying over 290 mothers and fathers on parenting paths.