We follow our projects first hand. Our team leaves every month to bring humanitarian aid to unrecognized spontaneous refugee camps. Without intermediaries.
SSCh – Support and Sustain Children – is an independent, non-profit voluntary association based in Verdellino (BG). It was born in 2013 in the form of a purpose committee and then reached its current structure starting from 2018.
Its mission is to provide support and support to the hundreds of children and young people left orphaned and victims of the ten-year Syrian conflict, providing for their primary needs and building the conditions for their social and economic redemption and for the reconquest of denied dignity.
Strengthened by the experiences gained in Jordan, Iraq, Greece, the Balkans and Romania, SSCh has put its organizational capacity to good use, bringing relief and aid not only to children, the main recipients of the SSCh team’s actions, but to Syrian refugees and displaced persons forced to escapees who find themselves in the spontaneous refugee camps on the borders of Turkey. Places of marginalization, poverty, degradation and ‘invisible’ to the authorities and humanitarian organizations.
A distinctive element of SSCh is its physical presence in the places of intervention. Every help, support and activity is documented in monthly missions. Constant monitoring of the network of local collaborators, the correct investment of resources and distribution of aid to beneficiaries is carried out. Every resource invested – deriving from private donations or tenders – is meticulously tracked and reported.
Il team
“We are ordinary men and women, with jobs and families, and like everyone else we experience the feeling of having little time to dedicate to good causes. After seeing firsthand the situation of children in refugee camps – poor in every way – we understood that any help is fundamental for them. For their own lives but also for us, our community and our society.” Arianna Martini
Arianna, Founder and president of SSCh
“I have always looked for poetry in the world. Then I met the eyes and hands of the children who were victims of the war and I understood that my restlessness had found its way to her. I am the most exposed person because I am the one who leaves every month to reach the camp and check that everything is working, but I have a formidable team next to me who supports me at all times.”
Barbara Colombo – Vice president and founding member of SSCh
“I started this adventure with Arianna Martini, in the wake of her strength and humanitarian passion. It was an opportunity to look beyond my family and my work, and open my eyes to the enormous tragedy of war and its innocent victims: children. Since then I have been an active part of this project.”
Luca Iacomelli – Storyteller, Social communication SSCh
“I chose SSCh, among many associations, because it is always present in the field. I first became a supporter and then I was offered the opportunity to become part of the team as a volunteer. I decided to enthusiastically give my contribution by making my skills available, aware of the great work that goes into a humanitarian organisation.”
Maruska Arrigoni – Management of website and SSCh gadgets
“I have been part of SSch since its inception. When I look into the eyes of the children we help, it hurts me that they are defenseless. Many are orphans or have parents who cannot provide for them because they have lost everything: home, job, family. My desire is to help those children and parents feel less helpless by restoring their dignity and hope.”
Margherita Dognini – SSCh accounting management
“I have been friends with Arianna Martini for many years and have been in the association since its birth.
I was struck by his going personally to bring help in areas where no one else or few others intervene, his direct contact with children, women, men and the elderly. From every trip he brings back stories, photos and thoughts that involve us, making us participants in a truly important project.”
Anna, SSCh doctor.
Doctor of Support and Sustain Children.
I am a young doctor from Bergamo. After graduation, five years ago, I enrolled in a Master in Tropical Medicine and International Health Cooperation: since then I have always alternated my work here, in Italy, with missions in developing countries, combining my profession with the great love for travel and humanitarian aid.
Paolo Messina, Pietro Politi – Photographers for SSCh
“We come from different professional experiences, but we found ourselves enthusiastically sharing the journey with SSCh. We document – each with their own style and sensitivity – the faces, the situations, the daily lives of people marginalized from the world due to a war that continues to rage against the defenseless and innocent. We are the eyes and memory of the team that goes on a mission every month bringing aid and support to the least of the least.”
Simone, administration for SSCh.
I have known Arianna for several years, since we were colleagues in the same company, long before SSCh was conceived. Seeing the efforts and commitment he put into helping human beings who would have had no hope and seeing that an undertaking that anyone would have considered a fight against windmills was actually a possible undertaking, I understood that I could stop feeling helpless watching these children, women, elderly people, men, thrown into a nightmare where daily survival becomes the only reason for living.
Gianluca Lazzarino – Mission Operational Staff for SSCh
“I am a practical and concrete man, gifted with a critical spirit and inventiveness. I am also Arianna Martini’s husband and I feel this path is a sharing of deep and engaging goals and motivation. Which makes the couple’s bond stronger and more solid. I support Arianna by accompanying her on her missions, helping her in managing activities and emergencies in the field.”
