SALTO SERRASTRETTA
by The Salto Project
The town of Serrastretta, in the mountains of Southern Italy, is offering to welcome 20-40 Venezuelan visitors. We are selecting several families with the right skills for the town, to visit and learn and we need to get them to Serrastretta this summer.
For almost two decades, Venezuela has been in crisis. The oppression, crime and corruption of the Chávez-Maduro regime has forced millions of Venezuelans to flee the country. Unfortunately, due to the poverty caused by the regime, the high cost of moving abroad, and difficulty finding suitable locations, this process has proved too difficult for many desperate Venezuelans still trapped in the country. However people still try to help and make a difference to improve the lives of Venezuelans.
The town of Serrastretta is struggling rural village high in the Calabrian mountains of Southern Italy. For decades, it has seen its population and services decline as the town’s population continued to shrink, but with an influx of Venezuelans entering the community through relocation, this will create a unique cooperative project not only to rescue Venezuelans from terror and oppression, but to help revitalize the town of Serrastretta.
An Unlikely Duo
A elderly woman rabbi and an Atheist Leatherman data scientist walk into a bar… but it’s no a joke. It’s an example of a unique cooperation to rescue families from poverty and terror and to rescue a village by rejuvenating it economically, demographically and spiritually. From two very different places, with two very different stories, Rabbi Barbara Aiello and Guido Núñez-Mujica have come together to help others and create a bond between two places with complementary needs.
“No one would expect people like us to be working together. We didn’t expect it either,” says Núñez- Mujica who notes that, incredibly, that’s what happened. Thanks to is efforts to help Venezuelans depart from their chaotic and dangerous country and Rabbi Barbara’s initiative to revitalize Serrastretta, her struggling village high in the Calabrian mountains of Southern Italy, a unique international project was born..
Rabbi Barbara, as she likes to be called, was moved to act as she observed the drop in population of her beloved village. For years she wondered how the residents might bring new life to the village, increase the population and promote economic growth. “When I saw news reports of the civil unrest and economic devastation in Venezuela, it seemed that offering help to select Venezuelans to come to visit our town seemed like a perfect match.”
The SALTO project Meets SAV – Serrastretta Aiuta Venezuela
Núñez-Mujica agrees. A native Venezuelan, he emigrated to Chile and then to the United States but could not ignore the suffering in his country, so much so that he created the SALTO Project (leap in Spanish) to bring individual Venezuelans out of their home country so that they could live peacefully and successfully, free from oppression, fear and for some, starvation.
The Italian arm of the project is called “Salto Serrastretta,” and it is a plan to bring families who will make the commitment to visit and learn about Serrastretta, the Italian language and culture. In addition Rabbi Barbara knows that some of the Venezuelan families that will be selected will have “b’eni anusim” Jewish roots, meaning that during the time of the Inquisition their ancestors were once Jewish. These families will not only find a satisfying, welcoming environment but a welcoming synagogue as well.
The Tragedy That is Life in Venezuela
Almost daily the world reads about Venezuela and how families there live in oppressed, circumstances, under terrible economic conditions, with very little health care and a terrible lack of medicines and medical supplies. Venezuelans are affected by crime and are desperately trying to survive. There is no hope for those who stay. Anti-semitism is rampant and many Jewish families have left the country. All in all the general situation in Venezuela has resulted in the largest migratory wave seen in South America. Almost 5 million Venezuelans, have left the country, with several thousand more leaving every day.
Southern Italy is Suffering, Too
Rabbi Barbara says that “Meanwhile, citizens in southern Italy (Calabria and Sicily) are aware of the population crisis that many of our small villages face. In our villages we find abandoned and crumbling houses. Many houses are for sale, but few people want to buy houses in towns that have a diminished economic future.”
In some areas local governments are selling abandoned houses for 1 Euro – an interesting idea but one that does not address the problem of how to grow a local population to make a healthy and thriving town.
A Solution With Mutual Benefit
While Venezuelans are searching for a new peaceful place to explore, the residents of Serrastretta are looking for young families, professionals and tradespeople who will enrich and contribute to their beautiful town.
Núñez-Mujica notes that “We are in the process of identifying and selecting a group of 15 to 20 people with key skills that Serrastretta needs, making this a reciprocal project where everybody benefits. Núñez-Mujica currently is interviewing medical professionals, a veterinarian, a baker and a Spanish language teacher to determine if their level of interest and skill and thanks to the support of the Mayor Felice Molinaro and local authorities, we have the backing we need to bring these people to Italy for an educational and cultural experience, where they will learn from Serrastretta, and at the same time, see its problems and circumstances from a new angle”
How Can I Help?
As is taught in the Jewish holy books, “He who saves a life saves the world entire.”
And Rabbi Barbara and Guido Núñez-Mujica are working to do just that. In order to make this happen we are currently attempting to raise $75,000 – an amount that will be used to buy plane tickets, rent houses and pay for food and utilities along with the services of an Italian teacher who will organize a “total immersion” language program while our Venezuelan guests take the time they need to learn to speak Italian, organize their work experience and explore this environment.
You can pledge directly at the link on the right upper side of this page, or you can simply follow this story and share with your friends. Getting the word out is essential for the goal of helping Serrastretta and the Venezuelans who will visit there. If you want to contribute by check, please mail to:
Social Good Fund; PO Box 5473; Richmond, CA 94805-4021; United States
Social Good Fund; 12651 San Pablo Ave. Unit 5473; Richmond, CA 94805; United States
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- Please make checks payable to “Social Good Fund” and indicate “The Salto Project” in the memo
It’s a Mitzvah
In these days and times, when negative news and tragedy seems to dominate the landscape, two people from extremely different backgrounds, with very different views of life have come together to do what really matters – to help others, Aiello and Núñez-Mujica are working together to offer kindness, support and love to those who need it, and to brainstorm realistic solutions for what seems like insurmountable problems.
We are hopeful but we can’t do it alone. We need your help. Please consider making a generous donation of any amount knowing that you will be helping desperate Venezuelan families to offer a new perspective for a little village that desperately needs an influx of courageous and determined new families and ideas.
These are turbulent times and there is much to be done. Please help us to rescue Venezuelan families and help the people of Serrastretta.
About us:
Rabbi Barbara is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania where she received the Distinguished Alumni Award. She holds a MS from The George Washington University in Washington DC and received rabbinic ordination from The Rabbinical Seminary International and the Rabbinical Academy in New York City. She is a founding board member of the International Federation of Rabbis, mentoring rabbi for the international Jewish Studies program, Darshan Yeshiva, and Blogger for Times of Israel.
Guido is a computational biologist and data scientist, born and raised in Venezuela. Guido’s life work has been using science and reason to help people. He started by writing simulations of infectious microorganisms in order to make drug development cheaper. Then he moved on to a startup to provide DNA based diagnostics for neglected diseases. After his startup failed Guido retrained and changed his career to become a data scientist in Silicon Valley and using his salary to start Salto, an organization that helps Venezuelans to emigrate. In a few years Salto has helped more than 135 people directly to leave the country.