PEOPLE

Hi! I am Sara de Simone and I am Mani Tese’s President since 25 November 2018.    From 2015 until 2018, I was Mani Tese’s Vice-president. My history within Mani Tese began in 2004, when I was in high school and I was involved in a Development Education course on the exploitation of child work and children rights. After having attended this course, I decided to become a Mani Tese’s volunteer in Naples. Throughout the years, I worked […]

My name is Palma Felina, I am 65 years old and before my retirement in May 2017, I was a social worker. I have always been interested in discovering new cultures and in activities, such as volunteering, that let me get close to disadvantaged people. My personal and professional life have always been intertwined.    When I was 16 years old, I became a […]

I am Barbara Cerizza. I graduated in Economics and Banking at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, in Milan. I also obtained a master in Internal Auditing and management control at the University of Pisa. Moreover, I attended a master in team coaching and I became a professional counsellor. After a trip to Brazil, I understood that my dream was to work for Ethical Finance and I started my professional career at the cooperative “verso la […]

I am Clara Castellucci (also known as Titta), I was born in Milan over 30 years ago and I have a master degree in Languages and Cultures for International Communication. Communication has always been my passion, even before it became my job. In the early 2000s, I got close to Mani Tese and I found very interesting its power to engage people to fight for relevant causes […]

My name is Samuele Degli Innocenti, I am almost 21 years old and I am studying Sociology at Florence University.  I consider Mani Tese as my home. When I was 12, I attended my first work and study camp in Florence. During that occasion, I became aware of the beauty behind selling a small object, which, in Mani Tese’s markets, represents the expression of love and […]

My name is Paolo Greco and I have always been passionate about volunteering and social activities. During the 1960s, I was involved in many activities related to: after school projects, cooperatives, association that provided help for people suffering from panic attacks. I started my professional life working for a labor Union and then I become a university professor of Labor Law. After 42 years of […]

My name is Giovanni Mozzi and I first met Mani Tese at the end of 1960s, thanks to my oratory friends, who participated to the marches of the first years of the association.    I started my experience at Mani Tese within the Project Area (former Technical Office), which was completely composed by volunteers. Since then, I was involved in many activities, such […]

My name is Giuseppe Stanganello.   I think that trying to give a meaning to our existence may be very difficult and it is something that we try to do every day. We do that, even without completely realizing it, throughout our behaviors that metaphorically fill a box measured by the time.    During the shift between study age and work age, our perception of time changes. We […]

Hi, my name is Roberto Valgimigli. I was born in Faenza, where I currently live. I graduated in economics with a master in economics of cooperation and NGOs. I am an office worker and I have always been interested in all the issues related to the third sector, solidarity and cooperation.    I started my journey with Mani Tese in 2006. Over these past years, I was involved with […]

I am Giovanni Sartor, graduated in Political Sciences with a thesis on political transition in Senegal. Once I finished my studies I immediately began to deal with “the world” and for three and a half years I worked as head of a shelter for migrants, asylum seekers and foreign students. In 2000 I left for Kenya where I remained almost seven […]

My name is Giosuè De Salvo. In life, I am an activist and for work, since 2010, I am the responsible for the Advocacy, Education and Campaigns Area in Mani Tese.   After a degree in business economics, two years of strategic advice and a master in international relations, I arrived through an ad on lunaria.org (do you remember?) straight to the heart […]

My name is Elias Gerovasi and after graduating in Political Sciences with an international orientation, I began my experience in international cooperation in the Balkans where I worked on behalf of the United Nations and the OSCE in the Department of Human Rights of the Humanitarian Mission in Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro. Three years later, I collaborated in Uganda with UNDP for the development of rural economy […]

My name is Giulia Donnici, and it all started here. I was still a university student when, in 2006, I arrived in Mani Tese as an intern. It was my first experience in international cooperation and I immediately thought it was the most beautiful and interesting job in the world. Thanks to the internship, I got close and passionate to the topic of corporate social […]

My name is Giacomo Petitti di Roreto, and to make it short, the heart of my job is to guide young people aged between zero and ninety-nine years on their path to become global citizens. It is a road that passes through the recognition of complexity, the understanding of the interdependence between environment, economy and society, the indignation for fundamental rights still […]

My name is Valeria Schiavoni, and what led me on the road to Mani Tese was the belief that international cooperation is meaningless if done in a purely welfare-oriented way. What therefore initially caught my attention was the vision of justice with which this NGO tries to combine the projects of the South of the World with the awareness and responsibility of […]

I am Gabriella Patriziano, born in Basilicata and resident in Milan since some years, after various life and work experiences in Italy and abroad. Incurable dreamer, I was lucky to be able to combine my passion for the world, mountain books, travel, cycling and climbing with my study and work, which allowed me to live different experiences that, over the years, have brought me closer to the world of […]

My name is Riccardo Rossella and two constants characterized my path: the instinctive curiosity for the world around me, and the commitment to improve it, as I can. I first studied international relations at the University of Pavia, and then I moved to Torino to specialize in economics and politics of the environment, motivated by the conviction that respect for the natural […]

My name is Erica Beuzer. I graduated in Psychology at the University of Padua when passion for anthropology in Italy could only be expressed by picking a couple of subjects from different faculties. That’s how my dissertation led me to the first longed-for experience in the world, anthropology applied to cooperation in the field of […]

My name is Achille Tepa and I was born on May 12, 1959 in Kandi (Alibori department). From 1965 to 1976, I did primary and secondary studies in Natitingou until the third year. From 1977 to 1979, I completed my secondary studies in Parakou obtaining a baccalaureate A4 (literature). In 1980, I had to perform compulsory military service, civic and patriotic while I was […]

I am Samuele Tini, from Cigliano in the province of Varese.  Service for rural communities and development is my way of life. For more than a decade I have been living in Africa. When I finished my studies, I decided not to leave the continent, but instead staying in Mozambique, Tanzania, Guinea Bissau, Sudan and now I am in Kenya.  I have worked with Mani Tese for many years, with daily passion to commitment for justice that distinguishes the association. Currently I am the responsible for country Kenya.  The major challenge, alongside our local […]

I am Paola Toncich, after graduating in Development and International Cooperation and a period of training and work I left Italy for Latin America, where Bolivia welcomed me for 7 years. That was an important period for job, but also for life, during which I was able to discover the country at 360 degrees.  Initially, I worked in food security and income generation projects in Bolivian […]

I am Sara Gianesini, graduated in Public Relations and Communication. After 6 years in the private sector, in the commercial and marketing sector, I decided for my personal attitude and strong ethical choice to dedicate myself to the world of international cooperation. After some important experiences in Brazil and Africa and many doubts about the professional and human future to take, today […]

I am Giulia Polato, born in 1989, scout and aid worker.  Since I was a child, my family taught me a certain attention to social issues. The environment in which I grew up helped me to develop a certain pattern of thought and action. I remember my mother saying to me with her index finger menacingly relieved not to waste food “because African children die […]

Hi, my name is Giulia Inguaggiato and for several years I have been dealing with the protection of the rights of migrants and refugees. My passion for this sector, complex and fascinating, was born during my university years, following the course “Asylum law and constitutional status of the foreigner“. With a thesis on issues related to European border control policies, I graduated from the Faculty of Law and started forensic practice, collaborating with law firms that dealt with international protection. The contextual voluntary activity carried out at the Legal Clinic […]

My name is Cosimo Tendi and since 2000, the year of my degree in Natural Sciences, I have been traveling the world managing development cooperation projects. I have worked in Egypt, Pakistan, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and now in Guinea-Bissau. I have mainly dealt with projects related to the environment, working with populations living in and […]

My name is Giorgia Vezzoli, I have been writing and communicating in different ways since ever. I started working for some important public relations agencies in Milan in 1999, where I handled the communication of several large companies.  Following my growing passion for sustainability and rights issues, I decided to promote associations and social campaigns with an agency in Florence. My professional […]

I am Aldo Daghetta, I work in Communication and Marketing with a focus on digital and innovation as well as coordinating fundraising activities and promoting volunteering.  Graduated in Communication and Multimedia Journalism, studies and practice have led me to know how to articulate projects and stories, often complex, as well as being able to speak in public and manage groups. Over […]

I imagine a world where cultures can live in one embrace. I imagine a country that can promote peace, coexistence, attention and respect for nature and for individuals. I imagine all this, but not only that, I’ve always tried to live for this. My name is Camilla Biondi, and in Mani Tese, I work in private fundraising. My life is a journey that has […]

I am Domenica Mazza, I met Mani Tese due to a work camp, more than 10 years ago. It was love at first sight and in short time from camp-volunteer I became a camp organizer, from volunteer I became volunteer organizer. I should say, I reached out and Mani Tese changed my life.  What did I do before? A degree in sociology, the civil service, various works in defence of human rights, the coordination of a project […]

My name is Chiara Cecotti, I met Mani Tese at my first work camp in 1982 in Treviso, I was 18 years old. In September of that year, we founded the Treviso Group, in which I am still volunteering: many fields, many tents, many conferences, many meetings and many train trips to meet the other volunteers of Mani Tese and participate in the construction of the Association in those years.  My […]

My name is Susanna Bontempi, In Mani Tese I deal with donors.   After graduating in History, I met Mani Tese and applied for a civil service announcement in 2016: I was impressed by the values of environmental, economic and social justice that characterized the association.   That year of civil service, like all good things, has flown quickly. I spent time in the fundraising office, where I had the opportunity to learn a job that I liked a […]

“Selling fictitious needs to the next and offering equally fictitious solutions to satisfy them“. This was the motto laid at the foundation of my career until the twenty eight year mark. Alessia Bianchi, originally from Como, graduated in Milan in Telecommunication Management & Economics, I lived on / off between the United Arab Emirates and […]

My name is Bruno Grande and I grew up between the oratory and the football fields of Lambrate, a neighborhood on the outskirts of Milan. Also in Lambrate I did all the schools, so I enrolled in the degree course in Modern Letters at the University of Milan.  Since I was a boy my passion was writing, so between one story and another, during my studies, I opened a blog on what I knew better: Lambrate, of course. It was an opportunity to learn as a “self-taught” to write in a style suitable for the web, to apply SEO copywriting techniques and to […]

Visual communication in the service of justice.  I am Antonio Spadaro and I hold the role of Visual Designer & Communication Specialist.  I studied Comics at the International Academy of Comics in Rome and since then I have always worked as a freelance cartoonist, illustrator and graphic designer.  During my personal and professional growth path, since I met and collaborated for the first time with a Non-Governmental Organization, I understood that I wanted to put my professional skills at the service of a good cause. This has led me […]

My name is Arianna Bianchi and I approached Mani Tese in 2017, when I spent a year in Civil Service at Mani Tese Social Cooperative. The great world of Mani Tese has given me more than I could have ever expected: in addition to the training and enrichment of my professional skills, in fact, there […]

My name is Fabrizio Rizzi, I am 50 years old and I’ve worked in Mani Tese for more than 8 years. I have a wife and two daughters: a teenager in full, and one who is becoming a teenager. After university, I started working as a teacher and after some time I arrived in the non-profit sector. Then I decided I wanted to stay. I believe that […]

My name is Marino Langiu, born and raised in the province of Varese. I graduated in management economics with master in finance and control, I started my career in Mani Tese since the time of the university as a volunteer, in particular with the study and work camps in Faenza, that I attended for four years in a row. Together with the […]

I am Viviana Galanti, and for just over two years, I have worked in Mani Tese in the Accounting and Finance Management Office. It all started about 15 years ago, when in the Faculty of Statistical Sciences I began to learn about “international cooperation”. From this “meeting” came the desire to reconcile the passion for numbers to the desire to do something concrete to […]

I am Sara Meraviglia, and I have been working in Mani Tese for almost 12 years. After a degree in economics, I found a (good) job in a multinational company where I fitted in easily. I have always worked in administration area, but accounting just to increase sales was not an answer to my desire to contribute to a fairer world. Therefore, I looked for a job in NGOs and after […]

My name is Claudia Ungaro, named Dodò! I have two children and a cat, and I live in Caronno Pertusella. I have breathed the air of Mani Tese since I was a child in the Caronno group where I participated in formative meetings, collections and flea markets. The first work camp was in 1976 and the last one in 2007 with my children. In 1984 I was lucky enough to become part of the staff of […]

My name is Michele Bernacchini and I deal with the administrative management of inclusion and awareness projects. From Ancona, I moved to Milan to work with Mani Tese after a degree in International Cooperation and several years spent volunteering and working in Italy and abroad. I have worked in projects aimed at protecting rights in different roles and then I started to take […]

My name is Elisa Checchetto, I have a high school diploma in Business Expert and Correspondent in foreign languages. Just after graduation, I became part of the world with Mani Tese.  During these years I have been working in organizing the secretary of the then “Project Service” working in close collaboration with area manager of Asia, Africa and Latin America.  After the internal reorganization of Mani Tese, I moved to the […]

Hello! I am Giusi Daniele and work in Mani Tese since 2007. I had never dealt with cooperation before, except as a simple little donor and supporter of ideas and peace. At the beginning, I have worked in the general accounting and from 2016 I manage the secretary. It is an activity always in evolution. Every day is never the same! In the past I never thought I could be part […]

I am Marcello Testa, graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. Since 2005, I have been working in Mani Tese as a simple clerk, assistant to the secretary and front office; this gives me the opportunity to gain knowledge about the value and humanitarian approach of the association. My shyness, kindness, honesty, loyalty and will, keep me bound […]