Giuseppe Berton

Father Giuseppe Berton (1932 – 25 June 2013) was an Italian missionary of the Xaverian Brothers, who had been living in Sierra Leone since 1971.

Born in Marostica, Vicenza, on 5 February 1932, he was the founder of the Family Homes Movement^[1] (FHM, Sierra Leone, 1985), a movement whose main aim was that of giving parental care and education to children in particular need; during the civil war Father Berton and FHM saved and rehabilitated into social life more than 3000 child soldiers.

Giuseppe Berton is the protagonist of the documentary La Vita Non Perde Valore (Life does not lose its value, Bluindaco Productions © 2012), thanks to which in 2014 the director Wilma Massucco has been awarded of an Italian National Award on Human Rights, i.e. 2014 Maria Rita Saulle Award.

Father Giuseppe Berton was the co-founder, together with Roberto Ravera (Director ASL 1 Imperiese, Italy), of the FHM ITALIA Onlus.^[2]

The FHM ITALIA Onlus is the Italian sister of FHM Sierra Leone. Based in Italy, it has been founded by the cooperation between Father Giuseppe Berton and Roberto Ravera, who had worked together, following the updated scientific theories in terms of psychology and psychopathology, for projects of rehabilitation and social, professional, scholastic inclusion of abandoned children.

Fr. Giuseppe Berton died on 25 June 2013 at the mother house of the Xaverians in Parma.^[3]

Documentaries

• DVD Life does not lose its value (Original title, Italian language, La vita non perde valore), by Wilma Massucco^[4] (ITA/ENG - 53' - Bluindaco Productions © 2012): it focuses, ten years after the war ending, on the reintegration, led by Father Giuseppe Berton, of former child soldiers, after they lived for long in the forest, together with the rebels of the RUF, Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone. Main focus of the Documentary: is it possible to overcome suffering, even when it is huge and deep like child soldiers' one? If so, in which way? The documentary has been analyzed in different Universities, becoming subject of various degrees,.^[5][6]
• Dvd Infanzia rubata, bambini soldato, child soldiers in Sierra Leone (ITA - Videomission © 2000), directed by Fiorenzo Raffaini

Contributions to other Documentaries

• Father Giuseppe Berton is one of the persons interviewed in the 2000 Documentary Film Cry Freetown,^[7] by Sorious Samura.^[8] The Film was produced with the assistance of CNN Productions and Insight News Television. Some of the baby soldiers interviewed by Sorious Samura in Cry Freetown and recovered by Father Berton are the same interviewed, in 2012, ten years later, in the Documentary Life does not lose its value.
• He has been many times subject of Italian National TV Channel. See for example: RAI TV Channel 3, Agenda del Mondo, puntata del 12 Nov 2011 and Raffaella Carrà and Antonello Venditti RAI 1, Amore, 2006

Books

• Quattro giorni, quarant'anni - it is focused on Father Berton's activities in Sierra Leone, during and after the Civil War (Davide Rondoni, 2006, Itaca Libri)
• Disegni di guerra. La guerra civile in Sierra Leone raccontata dagli ex bambini soldato di Padre Berton (Father Giuseppe Berton, 2000, EMI Ed.)

References

External links

• Debate on the Documentary Life Does Not Lose Its Value on YouTube participated by Father Giuseppe Berton and the psychologist Roberto Ravera, in Modena (Italy - Teatro Tempio - November 2012)
• Video interview with Father Giuseppe Berton How to develop no feeling of separation between "the ones" and "the others"? by Wilma Massucco for Eugad project