Written by Sebastiano V., Gregorio U., Gabriele T., Asia M., Angelica P.
Davide Cerullo
On Tuesday 13th February, we met Davide Cerullo, an ex member of the camorra, who came to our school and taught us his story.
He was born in Scampia, a quarter in Naples, that is not well seen since it’s full of criminals. He had exactly 6 sisters and 8 brothers, this is also one of the reasons he never felt loved. Since he was young he used to work for the camorra by delivering narcotic substances without even knowing. He would get paid by member of the camorra since he couldn’t get punished legally. When he was really young he was already dreaming of having a gun; now he dreams of being a kid again.
One of the biggest reasons he joined the camorra was that he didn’t get any education and wasn’t able to stand up for himself. Camorra is an illegal criminal organisation based in Campania, a region in the South of Italy.
The aim of the meeting is that every child grows up with good worths only is their parents, school and environment help them to have good roots and he underlined the importance of education in this process.
When he was 14 years old he got control of a drug dealing square and also got his hands on a gun; he felt like God and earned 900.000 lire a day (about 4500 euro a day).
When he got arrested for drug dealing he was 17, and found a small copy of the Bible on his bed and started browsing it till he got to one of the last pages and he saw that his was repeated 3 times, from this point forward, he understood that there was still a chance for him to change and become a better person.
He changed his lifestyle and when he grew up he founded an association named Albero delle storie (The Tree of Stories) to help the kids of Scampia.
Now he has about 42 nephews, and he is finally happy..