Hope for Rwandan orphans

Rwanda: A forgotten land

A group of 41 young African orphans from Rwanda began the New Year as fully fledged citizens of Italy. Despite recent threats by the President of Rwanda to force their repatriation, Italy says they have now been legally adopted and has refused to send them back to Africa. David Willey reported from Castenedolo.

Morning classes are over at the primary school in Castenedolo, a village in the Po valley in Northern Italy.

The Rwanda orphans now have Italian names - they' re called Giuseppe or Claudio - and Italian families, and they seem to merge seamlessly into this prosperous community.

Their story began during the Rwanda genocide seven years ago. Italian missionaries had founded an orphanage in Rwanda.

Rwanda's refugee camps struggled to cope

It was in danger of being overrrun and the children massacred. Father Giulio Albanese, a Roman Catholic Missionary priest, was there at the time and enlisted Italian government help to bring the children to safety here.

Although the Rwanda government has threatened to hire lawyers and begin court proceedings to get the children back, the families who have now legally adopted these children - and in some cases have given them new brothers and sisters - are remaining calm after receiving reassurances from the Foreign Ministry in Rome.

Home sweet home

The people of Castenedolo have taken the Rwandan children into their homes and their hearts.

Doctor Antonella Bertolotti, a psychiatrist specialising in post tramatic stress disorders, and who has extensive experience in Africa, is in charge of their mental health.

The childrens' new Italian adoptive parents refuse all requests for interviews. They were upset at getting into the news headlines.

The mayor of Castenedolo has worked hard to keep the both the Italian and the foreign press at bay in order to protect the privacy of the African Italians who are still all under the age of 10.

He believes their presence is a useful lesson in creating racial harmony in a part of Italy which - like it or not - is fast being transformed into a multiracial society.

Sometimes a Rwandan nurse employed as a social worker sings them a traditional African melody. But the children say they have no nostalgia for - nor any memories of - the country from which they were suddenly snatched from death in 1994.

They are the vanguard of the new multicultural and multiracial Italy of the third millennium.