Diary of a possible dream

“I am a surgeon. A choice I made a long time ago, when I was a young boy. There were no doctors in our family, yet that profession was highly respected at home. Being a doctor is not a job, my mother used to say, it's a mission. An overstatement? I don't know, but I still carry that sentiment with me.” In Diario di un sogno possibile (Diary of a possible dream), a book conceived to explain children what war is and to tell them about rights, which everyone must have “or they become privileges”, Gino Strada's voice resounds as powerful as when he was alive. The first-person narration retraces the story of a man who never chose to look the other way, of a war surgeon who trained in Milan but brought his life mission wherever it would be useful: Pakistan, Ethiopia, Thailand, Afghanistan and Peru, Djibouti, Somalia, Bosnia, Iraq, Cambodia and many other countries. The guiding principle is a simple one: when you see a problem, you need to cut any losses by acting right away. On these grounds, in 1994, Gino Strada founded EMERGENCY, to employ all his experience in emergency surgery in caring for the wounded in lands ravaged by wars and other humanitarian emergencies, in the belief that the right to healthcare should be universal. His words, thoughts and first-hand accounts of what he saw around the world unfold in a flowing narrative that is at times perturbing. Yet, that's precisely his aim: stir the conscience of young children, have them understand that a different path is possible, that demanding that war is abolished is not an unattainable dream and that things can always be changed, even when it seems unlikely. “You can't say that something is impossible until you try it. And if you can't do it, try it another way”, Strada used to say.  

  Diario di un sogno possibile (Diary of a possible dream)
by Gino Strada
Feltrinelli Kids, 2023