From Uganda to Pavia.
From Italy… to the whole world
Be strong, we all are positive lights!
DO YOU WANT TO TURN YOUR POSITIVE LIGHT ON TOO?
Get inspired by one of the messages at the bottom of this page and share your video on social media with #positivelights
The story of a positive message
On the afternoon of February 21st, 2020, the Tels team realized that the current health crisis would soon change everyone’s lives.
Our first reaction was a message of reassurance to our friends and our students: we are here, we won’t stop, so keep smiling, we’ll soon be travelling again (here is the video):
Unfortunately, as the days passed and the news grew more and more alarming, it became increasingly clear that it would not be possible to get back to travelling straight away – quite the contrary, we would be forced to stay at home for some time.
In the first week of March, the tide turned in Italy, and with it our awareness as a company.
Our vertical leap
We realized that TELS, up until now ‘The English Language Society’, would need a new mission in the post-epidemic world: TELS mutated, and made a vertical leap, to become ‘Travel, Education and Life Skills. Our meaning will have to become teaching young people, in English, the ability to meet the new challenges this crisis has opened up. For now they are wounds that burn, but they are also an opportunity to change shape and change gears.
In our name, the word ‘Travel’ has to be there, because never more than now, with all of us staying at home, is the powerful educational value and transformative power of travel clear. But will it be travelling as we have thought of it up until now? This we cannot say, but we are sure about one thing: from now on, Travel will go hand in hand with Education and Life Skills in the pursuit of becoming Sustainable Citizens.
All of this is happening inside TELS, in a moment in which we are physically far from one another, but one in heart and mind #iorestoacasa.
On the same day, Serena Ragni of the Girasole in Travacò, a dear friend we have often shared dreams with, not to mention our Vacanze Pavesi project, presented us the Italy-Uganda Society. A foundation begun in Pavia in 2000 to continue the work of Father Giovanni Scalabrini in Uganda, creating strong and independent communities thanks to the work of young people.
We received this video from them
THE WHOLE WORLD MUST SEE THIS MESSAGE
The strength of this message struck us to the core, for many reasons. It was another paradigm shift for us. In our imaginations we had thought Uganda would always need our help, but here, with a radical change of perspective, it is Ugandans saying to us: “now it’s our turn to help you.” Their support became reality in the form of a substantial donation to San Matteo Hospital in Pavia, but their help was even more profound then that, made as it was of positive vibes, and the fervent wish for the good of fellow humans.
… and we immediately began imagining a map of the world with positive points of light that come alive here and there, until they form a rich web of connections.
… and we immediately thought back to Further Up Yonder, a little jewel made by our dear friend and ex student, Giacomo Sardelli.
There are already myriad points of light, and you can see them from on high… all we have to do is bring them together!
This is why we at Tels are taking the message received from Uganda as a beginning, a launch platform, and we are sending it back out tenfold to our friends across Italy, across Europe, across the world, so that it may find it’s way back to where it started, having left behind it a trail of thousands of points of light, with all the positiveness and the will to start over again in a stronger and more just world.
LET’S TURN OUR POSITIVE LIGHTS ON
The seniors of the Tels Team return Uganda’s greetings, and will then pass the baton to the Junior team, the Tels Reps which are our point of contact with our students who travel to England; our friends from the Girasole will join us, and so too the storytellers of The Original History Walks®, and with them the 17 Italian cities where the History Walks are present. From there we will cross borders and bring everyone together in one virtual embrace #positivelights.
We launch our appeal above all to the thousands of ex students of Tels in the world, that this may be the chance to get back in touch, and feel how close we are, though far apart, so that the message travels on among friends, families and colleagues.
The only contribution we are asking for is a short video and positive vibes, but if you want to do something more concrete, what we really need right now is a cure for Covid-19: https://universitiamo.eu/campaigns/iostoconlaricerca/
That’s why you can support the research at San Matteo Hospital in Pavia where Italy’s first patient was treated. Let’s support Professors Raffaele Bruno and Fausto Baldanti (Department of Clinical, Surgical, Diagnostic and Pediatric Sciences at the University of Pavia) in their detailed study of the pathogenesis of the virus and the immunological reactions of various patients, and the mechanisms behind the rapid spread and contagion, so that they can take adequate therapeutic and control measures. They will also study the capacity of new medicines to block the growth of Coronavirus, and the development of mono-clonal human antibodies with neutralizing potential for the treatment of infected patients.
What the world needs now is this, but in the meantime, let’s plan on starting out again, as beautiful, just, organized and happy as we can be.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE AND MAKE YOUR OWN POSITIVE LIGHT SHINE
Get inspired by one of the videos on this page and “send it back out” symbolically to another part of the world, sending your message of positiveness, asking how people are in that small part of the world you are speaking to. You can send the video to us for publication here (info@iviaggiditels.it, WhatsApp +39 340 3248955) or post it directly on your social networks was #positivelights.
The mission is to make the message fly all the way around this world of ours, embracing it, and promising to do everything we can to look after the people who live here. We can do it, together, and it will be wonderful.
THE POSITIVE LIGHTS OF THE SENIOR TELS TEAM
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| Mariarosa, Pavia | Elena, Pavia | Alice, Cava Manara | Ivan, Travacò Siccomario | Marica, Gravellona Lomellina |
THE POSITIVE LIGHTS OF THE TELS REP TEAM
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| Giulia, Voghera | Gaia, Casteggio | Erica, Voghera | Daria, Balossa Bigli | Francesco, Pavia | Carola, Vignole Borbera | Lisa, Voghera | Marcello, Valencia |
POSITIVE LIGHTS FROM FRIENDS AROUND THE WORLD
ITALY
GERMANY
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| Ivana e Wolfang, Hannover | Massimo, Osnabruck | Anna, Stuttgart | Brigitte, Frankfurt | Benjamin, Heidelberg |
CENTER & SOUTH AMERICA
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| Araceli, Buenos Aires | Laura, Buenos Aires | Martina, Buenos Aires | Juliana & Marcelo, Rio de Janeiro | Renato, Sao Paulo | Renatta, Brasilia | COTEDIH, Haiti | Jimena, Flamingo, Costa Rica |
OTHERS FROM THE WORLD
POSITIVE LIGHTS FROM THE ORIGINAL HISTORY WALKS®’ STORYTELLERS
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| Simone, Pavia | Samantha, Milano | Daniele, Genova | Davide, Verona | Alison, Ferrara | Michael, Milano | Alex, Milano | Christopher, Parma | Carol, Torino |