Literacy courses? Very good. The cutting and sewing lessons? Optimal. Even a little bit of home economics, information technology or the rudiments of microcredit. But what is judo for? It is really useful, in the head and heart of a young and combative nun who overnight found herself “tutor” to an 80 little girls without a family, in an African country, Zambia, where to be females, orphans and illiterate is not the best pass for the future. Sister Patrizia Di Clemente is 44 years old, she is a solid Bergamo, with an open face and transparent eyes. Since February 2019 she has returned to Italy and now works in Rome as an educator in reception centers for unaccompanied foreign minors. But in this story there is a “before”. And it is when Sister Patrizia was on a mission in Lusaka (from 2008 to 2019), the capital of Zambia, and in the Saint Daniel Comboni for Social Development Center she offered a chance to dozens of single girls: start-up courses and for the most promising also scholarships to continue attending school. «They were very young, without parents, or entrusted to pseudo-uncles from the city. But for many of them it was a trap: they ended up being house slaves, with real risks of abuse and violence », she tells Avvenire. In the summer of 2016, the meeting with an Italian volunteer who arrived in Lusaka for a month of service broadened the horizons. In fact, the young woman is a judoka and Sister Patrizia does not miss the opportunity. “For some time I have been thinking about how to teach girls who live situations of submission at home and oppression outside the home to defend themselves: and here is the answer”, she smiles. But judo is not just self-defense: it is also concentration, self-discipline, expression of physical and mental strength, balance. A petite girl who learns to stand up to an antagonist older than her also realizes that she can make it in her life. Her self-esteem increases and so does her confidence in her own possibilities. With the departure of the Italian volunteer, Sister Patrizia turns to the Zambian Judo Association, which gives away uniforms and tatami mats and provides an instructor three times a week. «Judo does not stimulate aggression: you learn to touch the opponent by following the rules, therefore with respect and following the other’s times. Physical strength is secondary. It’s a great life lesson ». Sister Patrizia’s girls participated in the National Judo Championship in 2018 “and this made them feel important, they felt valued and appreciated, they who live locked up in their suburbs”. A suburb with dilapidated houses, cold and damp, made of sand bricks mixed with concrete to withstand the rains and winds. A periphery, again, made up of broken families, with non-existent fathers and “guardians” who in reality only protect their own interests. Sister Patrizia could tell dozens of stories: thanks to judo some students have overcome eating disorders and faced conflict family situations with more determination. Year after year, judo courses have become inclusive, with the inclusion of some girls with psychophysical disabilities. “I remember Janet, visually impaired. She was 6 years old and came to the Center accompanied by two aunts, two 14-year-old twins. She was always attached to them, she didn’t know how to relate to others. But the instructor Hamphrey has worked the miracle: Janet is gradually emancipated from her aunts. She is now 11 years old and she walks with her head held high, alone ».
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