The name of the project is related to the meaning of the word uprooting. The project is about the story of some Belarussian children who abandoned their origins, their roots, for being adopted by Italian families. On this way they experience a different culture, which they must face and learn, and with time living with it. To be born in a nation means unconsciously connecting to the habits of that place, to the smells, to the atmospheres and to bring all with you for the rest of your life; it also means to miss your original country, however good or bad it might be. Each adopted child constantly feels himself between the country where he was born and the country where he is going to live. He experiences the pain feeling of staying between “here” and “there”. To adopt means constantly questioning yourself, day by day facing issues because these children bring lack of experiences and knowledge with them and they had to live dealing with these lacks. Traveling to Belarus and following the children’s lives through an unknown reality, many associations allow many people to live, people who are willing to adopt a child. Who adopts a child must know the background of this kid. Being connected to this child means to empathize with him, trying to understand his need to recover his own identity. It means to try to understand his willing of filling the gaps he has inside and his inner thrust for pursuing this aim. The adults must understand the unspoken rules this kid created around himself. The kid will always tend to feel like a foreigner and often to look back to his origins. Accepting this kid in their life is a complicated process, because these kids were obliged to grow up too fast and to face difficult situations to deal with. The adoption represents the first moment when this kid finds back his pleasure of living his childhood, while continuing to feel inside an interior conflict. It’s easy a misunderstanding between the kid and his new parents, because they don’t know where these attitudes come from and why. Being an adoptive parent means getting involved in these situations, trying to understand which causes are behind an issue. There are more responsibilities comparing the ones of a normal biological parent because they must try to not open the still not recovered wounds in the soul of these children, trying to help and trying to not create new wounds. To support each other is an effort that can bring day by day to a strong relationship, full of comprehension and love. “A mother is like a mountain source that nourish her tree from the roots, but a woman who became a mother of a child born from another woman she is like the water that evaporated becoming a cloud and travelling long distances reach and nourish a tree on the desert. From Talmud “All the pains are bearable. If you let them in a story, or if you can tell a story through them.” Karenn Blixen
