The Joel Nafuma Refugee Center in Rome provides daily support for refugees and migrants, many of whom face homelessness after government housing assistance runs out. One man describes spending four to five months homeless before finding the center, where staff and psychologists offered him consistent emotional support and hope during a difficult period. Each day the center opens at 8:30 am, serving around 200 breakfasts, followed by a supply room offering hygiene items and clothing, and language classes in English, Italian, French, and German. Beyond food and basic necessities, the center helps people build résumés, connects them to free hospital care, and runs an autism support group whose members make and sell handicrafts, becoming community leaders in the process.
A UTO-funded Episcopal Migration Ministries challenge helped raise awareness of refugee needs worldwide and supported significant growth in the center’s offerings, expanding from occasional language classes to daily instruction in multiple languages, plus added art therapy, music therapy, and increased volunteer support. Participants describe the center less as a service provider and more as a family—a place where people who once felt isolated and alone now eat, work, and create together. For at least one formerly homeless man, the center’s housing assistance gave him a stable place to live and marked what he describes as a genuine turning point in his life.
