While Silvia was coming back to Italy, Micaela died. Now “her” children are at risk of becoming prey to the orcs

Al momento stai visualizzando While Silvia was coming back to Italy, Micaela died. Now “her” children are at risk of becoming prey to the orcs
credit photo Cesar Herrero

English translation by Milena Rampoldi, ProMosaik

Micaela de Gregorio understood the mechanism of change, that subtle thread beginning with a crazy idea to follow a humanitarian path to reach the miracle, that incredible spark leading to undergo the evolution of our existence”. These are the words used by Walter Forio – an invented name for security reasons – who has been a volunteer in Africa for a decade. And these words left me perplexed and amazed. Here in the Western world, only few people knew of Micaela’s existence. At the age of 45 she chose to sell everything, to strip her life, to leave her town Monza to definitively move to Africa. However, she did not choose any area, but one of the most impervious and dangerous places, Kenya, where many children had not just lost their parents, but also their freedom. By telling this story, Walter recalls her words which have indelibly impressed on his mind: “Life is not easy, but as soon as the ferry from Mombasa touched the shore of Likoni, I realized that this was my place.”

The more I look at the photographs portraying this woman during the last days of her life, the more I realize how her dream had motivated her to make such a jump finally throwing her into hell. And it was exactly the hell she had struggled against in silence for years. She often even managed to hide this hell with a small smile for the children walking around her all the time. As shown by many foreign and Italian investigations in the recent years, Kenya and Gambia have now been transformed into paradises for paedophiles; there are even complaints against a Caritas centre located right in those places.

The investigation was published by the famous tabloid The Sun in January 2020 and caused quite a stir, because it portrayed men of any age abusing children who were not even 5 years old. Small children who probably got a few pennies after having been used to satisfy the morbid cravings of these men.

Of course, Micaela exactly knew how powerful paedophilia is. And this is also the case in Likoni where she had founded the centre Likoni Yetu. A few days after her death caused by an infection contracted precisely in Africa, this place risks being sold to the highest bidder.

Walter is afraid that the centre has already been sold and then he speaks about a powerful Italian, the owner of the centre where Silvia Romano had denounced the abuse of minors in 2018 before being kidnapped. And this centre is just a few meters from the other one. “Everyone there knows that there was nothing else to expect,” Walter adds with his voice muffled by sadness. He says that years ago some children were taken away from Micaela by that blond little man in his thirties called Davide Ciarrapica. He is exactly the same person Massimo Alberizzi talks about in details when treating Silvia’s kidnapping in this article published in the newspaper Fatto Quotidiano in June 2019 (https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/in-edicola/articoli/2019/06/21/molestie-pedofilia-una-vendetta-ecco-perche- silvia-e-sparita / 5271399 / )  

 In this context, it is important to know that if you know the right people you can become very powerful in this place. Walter says that this Italian had achieved precisely this goal. And he adds that he hopes that now Silvia Romano, after her return to Italy, will choose to denounce what happened in those places to try all together to stop the slaughter of the children.  May be people care too much about Islamic fundamentalism these days. And so they ignore Western paedophilia. In fact, this tragedy still risk fading into the background.

Walter continues his story about Micaela which seems throwing a blade into my heart:

I will tell you, for example, how Micaela was used these years by everybody: by local people, by the representatives of the cooperation organisations and even by the physicians who left the place. Micaela was foresight and had bought a Tuk Tuk, a kind of Apecar. The idea was to make the most of it so to feed the children. Finally, the investment should be returned to the families to give them a grain of serenity. She hired it to a local guy and with the rentshe was able to live and have a taxi at her disposal. Instead she discovered – Walter adds – that the guy was not as honest as she had hoped. He stopped paying the rent to her and when Micaela complained she discovered the bitter truth, that the place Tuk Tuk was not her, but his property. This kind of scams is very common in Kenya. So, Micaela had lost Tuk Tuk and her living.”

While he is telling this story about his Africa, Walter is embittered and disgusted. In this place, his tired hands had built floors, schools and many other buildings, while the “white man” in the meantime abused children. Micaela’s death worries him a lot. In recent years, she had managed to create this small association which distributed meals made by her and her cooperation partners, she had managed to distribute drugs by struggling against the local mafia and the lobby of the Italian non-profit organizations. However, first of all, so Walter, she had managed to oppose to the major enemy.

Photo credit The Sun on pedophilia in Africa

Silvia Romano: her name has been mentioned in many investigations since 2019. And several times it crossed that of  Davide Ciarrapica, a twisted and disturbing character many Italians and volunteers of this African region called the “cannibal”. He is called this way because of an episode that saw him involved years ago in a fight in a nightclub in Milan. He received a 6-year sentence for having torn with a bite the entire external auricle of a man. The victim was entitled to a compensation of 35,000 euros because of his permanent impairment while Ciarrapica escaped to Kenya by avoiding jail.

Numerous witnesses, among others reported by the media outlet AFRICA EXPRESS, remember him as a person with a violent instinct.  In fact, a former employee of the centre hosting the orphans of Likoni tells what happened to Silvia Romano on her return in November 2018. She perceived that the children had a strange attitude, welcomed her coldly because they were afraid of Davide’s irascibility. The witness also remembers that the children looked at her with frozen eyes instead of running towards her as it normally happens in these areas. This was not a coincidence, but a precise sign.
It is impossible to forget the words published on some tabloids of one of the Kenyan investigators involved in the investigation: 

We had indications that Silvia expressed some discomfort towards the structure where, according to her, harassment of the little guests took place. That organization is looked upon with some benevolence by the local authorities. Davide Ciarrapica’s partner and friend, and the owner of the villa that hosts the centre, Rama Hamisi Bindo, is the son of a famous politician and, as a consequence, he enjoys unsuspected protections”.


In fact, during her last trip Silvia Romano reported to the authorities what happened in that centre. According to Alberizzi’s reconstructions (see link quoted above), Silvia even reported that Ciarrapica was having an affair with a very young girl and that his partner was a man supported by powerful local political connections. Furthermore, as confirmed by Tiziana Beltrami, the owner of a restaurant in Malindi, the young co-worker who is now back in the family, would have witnessed paedophile acts against minors residing in the Orphans Dream, the centre managed by Davide Ciarrapica. To be precise, an Anglican pastor named Francis Kalama of Marafa, a Jesuit of the hotel “the cannibal” is also a member of was involved in the affair as well.

So far the facts. The facts were exhumed because of the death of the poor Micaela De Gregorio occurred at the same time of the good news of the return of Silvia Romano, the brave girl whose kidnapping should be examined as well in the light of these facts and of her complaints, beyond her religious choice which has to be respected. But what happened to Silvia Romano’s complaints? According to the saddest traditions related to crimes involving too many interests, they seem to have vanished into thin air. Another reason to deepen the investigations beyond the facade, beyond the Islamic dress and religious choices of this girl whom Micaela dreamed of embracing if she had not died of an intestinal infection the same day of her release. “Her” children and the many friends from Monza who supported her projects will mourn her. After Silvia’s return and after Micaela’s death, the Italian government has the responsibility to investigate the case to avoid that Micaela’s humanitarian work is lost and that the skeletons remain closed in the closets, perhaps covered by gossip and wickedness generated by a green Muslim dress.

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